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Oldie Goldies:

Improving Social Security in CanadaGuaranteed Annual Income: A Supplementary Paper
1994- This is one of the supplementary papers produced in the
course of the 1994 Social Security Review*.
Excellent overview of GAI , filled with historical information (check
out Appendix A...) and a detailed analysis of both the Negative
Income Tax (NIT) and the Universal Demogrant (UD).Highly recommended reading for all social researchers.
There's even a four-page chapter on absolute and relative measures
of adequacy.PDF version - 150K, 53 pages HTML version - 117K, 37 pages[*See the Canadian Social Research Links CAP/CHST
Resources page for more on the 1994 Social Security Review]

A Basic Income (a.k.a. guaranteed
annual income) for Canadians : What would change?
By John Stapleton
January 2017

In late 2016, the Ontario government
announced its intention to carry out a basic income pilot project
in communities across the province. In response, a range of authors
and experts have examined how variations of the model could benefit
the one in eight Canadians who live in poverty.

Metcalf Innovation Fellow John Stapletons
latest report contributes to the current discussion by illustrating
how a basic income would work in real-life situations. A Basic Income
for Canadians: What would change? compares the actual budgets of four
people receiving income security benefits  an elderly veteran,
a senior living in poverty, a single mother, and a member of the working
poor  revealing how each person is served by our current income
security system, and how a basic income could alter their circumstances.

Author John Stapleton is Metcalf
Innovation Fellow. The purpose of the Fellowship is to give people
of vision the opportunity to investigate ideas, models, and practices
that have the potential to lead to transformational change.

Open Policy Ontario is John's
website --- check out the links to 100+ online publications dating
back to 2004, authored by John and providing valuable insights into
social policy in Ontario and in Canada:http://openpolicyontario.com/

Mincome
Manitoba - jump directly down on the page you're now reading
to a special section of links to information about Canada's only experiment
in the area of guaranteed minimum income programs, in Dauphin Manitoba
in the mid-1970s.

Links below are
organized in reverse chronological order on this page, with the most
recently-posted link immediately below this red bar.

Press release
NOTE : The French version of the reports of the Expert Committee on guaranteed
minimum income includes more content than the English.

Final Report of the Expert Committee on Guaranteed Minimum
Income
- Moving Toward a Transformed and Enhanced Income Support Systemhttp://www.fil-information.gouv.qc.ca/Pages/Article.aspx?aiguillage=ajd&type=1&lang=en&idArticle=2511135066
November 13, 2017
The Expert Committee on Guaranteed Minimum Income released today its final
report, in which it presents 23 recommendations consistent with a global vision
of what would be a transformed and enhanced income system. This global vision
is based on both a conceptual analysis of the very idea of guaranteed minimum
income and an overall diagnosis of Québec's current income support
system. The final report is accompanied by the progress report.

Quebec is implementing a means-tested benefit, not a basic
incomehttp://basicincome.org/news/2018/01/canada-quebec-implementing-means-tested-benefit-not-basic-income/
January 24, 2018
Andre Coelho
The province of Quebec has been fostering conversations around basic income
and even, at a certain point in 2016, has appointed a long-time supporter
of basic income, François Blais, as Minister of Employment and Social
Solidarity. Although the term guaranteed minimum income has been
used in an indiscriminate fashion ever since 2014, there has never been an
actual mandate for Blais to implement basic income in Quebec.

BIENhttp://basicincome.org/about-bien/
Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims to serve as
a link between all individuals and groups interested in basic income (i.e.
a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual
basis, without means test or work requirement) and to foster informed discussion
on this topic throughout the world.

Related link:

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) [ https://www.basicincomecanada.org/
] is a voluntary, non-profit, non-partisan organization promoting informed,
constructive public dialogue leading to a basic income guarantee in Canada.

Costing a National Guaranteed Basic Income Using the Ontario
Basic Income Model http://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/en/blog/news/Guaranteed_Basic_Income
17 April 2018
(...) The total annual estimated gross cost of the defined GBI would range
between $76.0 billion and $79.5 billion for the period 2018-2023. The guaranteed
income for disability would range between $3.2 billion and $3.5 billion.

A Canadian Basic Income Could Cost Much Less Than The $43-Billion
Estimate.
Heres How. Savings to health care costs alone could offset nearly
half the bill.https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/04/19/basic-income-cost-canada_a_23415260/
April 19, 2018
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) this week released an estimate of
what it would cost to make basic income a reality in Canada. If the whole
country adopted the model currently being tested out in Ontario, the net
cost would be $43 billion a year: $76 billion for the basic income payments,
minus about $33 billion in savings from the welfare and disability benefits
it would replace. About 7.5 million Canadians, or roughly a fifth of the
population, would see some money coming in from a basic income, the PBO
estimated.

BIENhttp://basicincome.org/about-bien/
Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims to serve as
a link between all individuals and groups interested in basic income (i.e.
a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual
basis, without means test or work requirement) and to foster informed discussion
on this topic throughout the world.

Related links:

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) [
https://www.basicincomecanada.org/
] is a voluntary, non-profit, non-partisan organization promoting informed,
constructive public dialogue leading to a basic income guarantee in Canada.

10th international Basic Income Week 18-24
sept. 2017https://basicincomeweek.org/ubi/A basic income guarantee (BIG) ensures everyone an income sufficient to
meet basic needs and live with dignity, regardless of work status.

Call for Participation for the 10th International
Basic Income Week
18 to 24 September 2017
Unconditional Basic Income is affordable!
There is enough for everyone! We only need to challenge and change the existing
distribution of wealth!
We invite activists around the world to contribute to our action week for
Unconditional Basic Income (UBI).
We can help with finding presenters and promoting your event with our shared
website:https://basicincomeweek.org

The Basic Income Week is a self-organised participatory
week.
The UBI-Week was initiated in 2008 in German-speaking countries. Activities
spread significantly in Europe after the establishment of the new coalition
Unconditional Basic Income Europe (UBIE) in 2014. http://ubie.org

150 Words Project  Canadahttps://basicincomeweek.org/ubi/event/150-words-project-canada/
Posted on 15 September 2017
The year 2017 marks Canadas 150th anniversary since its founding. And
yet some six generations along since 1867, millions of people in Canada today
suffer in poverty or experience relentless, stressful economic insecurity.

We have asked our network members, then:
How might a Basic Income Guarantee affect your life, your loved ones, or other
people you know well?
Over 400 people have answered that question in 150 words and sent us their
responses. Well collate the submissions and send them along to Prime
Minister Trudeau and key federal Cabinet members.

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)http://www.basicincomecanada.org/
The Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) is a voluntary, non-profit, non-partisan
organization promoting informed, constructive public dialogue leading to a
basic income guarantee in Canada. (...) The year 2017 marks Canada's 150th
anniversary since its founding. And yet some six generations along since 1867,
millions of people in Canada today suffer in poverty or experience relentless,
stressful economic insecurity.

International Basic Income Week - (September
18-24)

What is Unconditional Basic Income?https://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/unconditional-basic-income/
How might a Basic Income Guarantee affect your life and/or your loved ones?
We invite you to answer that question in approximately 150 words and, by September
15th, send your reply to info@basicincomecanada.org. During the upcoming 10th
International Basic Income Week (September 18-24), we'll collate the submissions
and send them along to Prime Minister Trudeau and key federal Cabinet members
(Finance, Health etc.) who are in position to introduce basic income security
for all, from coast to coast to coast. Below what you write, please provide
the name of the city/town and province/territory in which you reside. You
can also provide your nameor leave your name anonymous if that would
be your preference. Thanks, we look forward to hearing from you and from many
others across Canada!

Also, save the datesthe next North
American Basic Income Congress (NABIG) will be held in Hamilton May 24-27,
2018!

-------------------------------------------

A Brief History of Basic Income Ideas https://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/brief-history-basic-income-ideas/
The idea of an unconditional basic income has three historical roots. The
idea of a minimum income first appeared at the beginning of the 16th century.
The idea of an unconditional one-off grant first appeared at the end of the
18th century. And the two were combined for the first time to form the idea
of an unconditional basic income near the middle of the 19th century

UBIEuropehttps://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/unconditional-basic-income/
Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) is an amount of money, paid on a regular
basis to each individual unconditionally and universally, high enough to ensure
a material existence and participation in society. UBI is a step towards an
emancipatory welfare system.

A Brief History of Basic Income Ideashttps://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/brief-history-basic-income-ideas/
The idea of an unconditional basic income has three historical roots. The
idea of a minimum income first appeared at the beginning of the 16th century.
The idea of an unconditional one-off grant first appeared at the end of the
18th century. And the two were combined for the first time to form the idea
of an unconditional basic income near the middle of the 19th century.

1. Lets match the savings of lower-income
workers when they invest in assets  like small businesses, homes, retirement
accounts and post-secondary training  that encourage their future financial
security.
2. Lets increase the bargaining power of workers.
3. Lets build a new post-secondary education and training system.

Basic income has opportunity costs:
http://www.thinkupstream.net/big_costs
What do Canadians think about basic income? It will reduce poverty but could
raise taxes: http://globalnews.ca/news/3509763/what-do-canadians-think-of-basic-income-it-will-reduce-poverty-but-could-raise-taxes/
Employment Strategy for Ontarians with Disabilities

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)http://www.basicincomecanada.org/
The Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) is a voluntary, non-profit, non-partisan
organization promoting informed, constructive public dialogue leading to a
basic income guarantee in Canada. (...) The year 2017 marks Canada's 150th
anniversary since its founding. And yet some six generations along since 1867,
millions of people in Canada today suffer in poverty or experience relentless,
stressful economic insecurity.

International Basic Income Week - (September
18-24)

What is Unconditional Basic Income?https://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/unconditional-basic-income/
How might a Basic Income Guarantee affect your life and/or your loved ones?
We invite you to answer that question in approximately 150 words and, by September
15th, send your reply to info@basicincomecanada.org. During the upcoming 10th
International Basic Income Week (September 18-24), we'll collate the submissions
and send them along to Prime Minister Trudeau and key federal Cabinet members
(Finance, Health etc.) who are in position to introduce basic income security
for all, from coast to coast to coast. Below what you write, please provide
the name of the city/town and province/territory in which you reside. You
can also provide your nameor leave your name anonymous if that would
be your preference. Thanks, we look forward to hearing from you and from many
others across Canada!

Also, save the datesthe next North
American Basic Income Congress (NABIG) will be held in Hamilton May 24-27,
2018!

-------------------------------------------

A Brief History of Basic Income Ideas https://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/brief-history-basic-income-ideas/
The idea of an unconditional basic income has three historical roots. The
idea of a minimum income first appeared at the beginning of the 16th century.
The idea of an unconditional one-off grant first appeared at the end of the
18th century. And the two were combined for the first time to form the idea
of an unconditional basic income near the middle of the 19th century

UBIEuropehttps://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/unconditional-basic-income/
Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) is an amount of money, paid on a regular
basis to each individual unconditionally and universally, high enough to ensure
a material existence and participation in society. UBI is a step towards an
emancipatory welfare system.

A Brief History of Basic Income Ideashttps://basicincome-europe.org/ubie/brief-history-basic-income-ideas/
The idea of an unconditional basic income has three historical roots. The
idea of a minimum income first appeared at the beginning of the 16th century.
The idea of an unconditional one-off grant first appeared at the end of the
18th century. And the two were combined for the first time to form the idea
of an unconditional basic income near the middle of the 19th century.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* NOTE
: Each of the items below points to an article or a study
that you can access by clicking the "Basic Income" link above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Politics of Basic
Income

Basic Income and the Left: Political and economic
problems by David Bush

Basic Income as a Neoliberal Weapon by John
Clarke

What Basic Income means for disabled people
by Aj Withers and John Clarke

Click the link immediately above to access
any of the dozen or so articles in the list below.

Basic Income

Star: Ontario launches basic income pilot for
4000 in Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Lindsay
Globe: Ontario to roll out basic income in three cities
ISAC Q&A Backgrounder: Ontarios Basic Income Pilot Project: What
it could mean for people on social assistance
Five questions on basic income as Ontario launches its experiment
Ontario to select First Nation for Basic Income Pilot Program in fall

Income pilot project delays action on social
assistance: Northumberland poverty groups
Basic income finds support on right as most transparent form of
redistribution
Walkom: Wynnes basic income plan is bread without circuses
Four more arguments against real-world basic income
Want to end poverty? Lets talk about a maximum income for Ontario
Government release: Giving more people an opportunity to get ahead and stay
ahead
Government backgrounder: Ontarios Basic Income Pilot
Premiers Statement: Premier lays out plan for fairness and security
in uncertain times

Ontario embraces no-strings-attached basic
income experiment
Province to follow trail blazed by Manitoba in the mid-1970s with plan to
lift people out of poverty with unconditional monthly payments.https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/04/18/ontario-embraces-no-strings-attached-basic-income-experiment.htmlApril 18, 2017
(...) Proponents on both the political left and right are embracing a minimum
or basic income as a way to reduce poverty, support workers faced by the challenges
of automation and precarious employment and reform excessively punitive and
bureaucratic welfare programs.

Basic income (BI) is a seemingly simple concept
at a high level but is complex and thorny in its details. To help build knowledge
about itincluding arguments for and against BII (Rob Rainer) recommend
six papers all issued between September last year and this month.

Towards a Guaranteed Livable Income
[ https://cpj.ca/GLI ], by Citizens for Public
Justice, offers a set of recommendations for guiding the development
of a Guaranteed Livable Incomean income security system that would ensure
that everyone has access to the basic necessities of life and the means to
participate meaningfully in the life of their community....a GLI does not
represent a solution to all of the causes of poverty, but it is an important
strategy for addressing fundamental societal inequities...

Basic Income: Rethinking Social Policy
[ goo.gl/KaxJko ]
By the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), is a compendium
of thought from some of Canadas most knowledgeable BI, health,
social policy, and public policy experts.

A Basic Income for Canadians: What Would
Change?http://metcalffoundation.com/stories/publications/a-basic-income-for-canadians/
By income security expert John Stapleton, depicts how ordinary Canadians
receive very different treatments from Canadas income security system;
explores what would happen if BI became available to four fictional people
in typical real life circumstances; and strives to show who would get
more money and who would notwhile also considering the manifest unfairness
of the...current system.

A Policymaker's Guide to Basic Income
[ https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/policymakers-guide-basic-income
]
economist David Macdonald models eight BI scenarios in two broad approaches:
(1) the one-size-fits-all (universal) basic income, where all Canadians receive
an identical cheque in the mail at regular intervals...and (2) a negative
income tax approach that is geared to income, i.e., the richest Canadians
receive nothing and the poorest receive the maximum income supplement.
The scenarios range from universal payments of $1,000 to $3,565/year to income-tested
payments ranging from $10,000 to $18,008/year. Macdonald concludes that [t]he
most efficient approach...may be a basic income in the negative income tax
model that reduces in value based on income and family sizein other
words, a basic income that targets those who need it most.

In Designing a Basic Income Guarantee for Canada
(updated version below), economists Robin Boadway, Katherine Cuff, and Kourtney
Koebel examine what a single federal-provincial BI program for adults could
cost and how it could be funded in a revenue-neutral scenario, using the income-tested
model for design and delivery. The authors show how by converting many existing
non-refundable tax credits and folding several existing refundable tax credits
into the BI, that a BI of up to $20,000 per adult per year could be realized,
while simultaneously reducing Canadas poverty rate by 73% and Canadas
level of income inequality by 17%.

Designing a Basic Income Guarantee for
Canada (PDF - 32 pages)http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/working_papers/papers/qed_wp_1371.pdf
By Robin Boadway and Katherine Cuff (Queens University) and Kourtney
Koebel (McMaster University)
February, 2017
Prepared for New Frontiers in Public Policy: Federalism and the Welfare State
in a Multicultural World, A Conference in Celebration of Keith Banting, Queens
University, September 2324, 2016. The topic of this paper coincides
with two preoccupations of Keith Bantings vast research output: social
policy and federalism. While his work focused on the politics of redistribution,
our results support the economic feasibility of a basic income guarantee.
Source:
Rob Rainer [ robertjrainer@gmail.com ]
Basic Income Advocate
Chair, Ontario Basic Income Network
Member, Advisory Council of Basic Income Canada Network
[ http://www.basicincomecanada.org/
]

In Pilot lessons: How to design a basic income
pilot project for Ontario
[ https://mowatcentre.ca/pilot-lessons/
] Authors Evelyn Forget, Dylan Marando, Michael Crawford Urban, and Tonya
Surman summarize the basics of basic income, review major trends and forces
within rapidly changing labour markets, identify key lessons from past BI
experiments, and make recommendations for the design of Ontarios forthcoming
BI pilot projectwhat the authors describe as an opportunity for Ontario
to be at the forefront of global social policy innovation. (Details
of the pilot are anticipated to be announced by the Ontario government in
April.)

From November 3, 2016 to January 31, 2017, we
invited Ontarians to share their feedback online, in-person and through written
submissions, on the design of a Basic Income Pilot. Read the report back to
learn more about what we heard during the consultation. We are still in the
process of designing the pilot, which we will launch in spring 2017. We are
also continuing to work with Indigenous communities to tailor a culturally
appropriate approach that reflects their advice and perspectives.

Ontario Seeking Input on Basic Income
Pilot
Province Launching Consultations on Innovative Way to Deliver Supportshttps://news.ontario.ca/mcss/en/2016/11/ontario-seeking-input-on-basic-income-pilot.html
News Release
November 3, 2016
Ontario is seeking public input to help inform the design of a basic income
pilot, which is an innovative new approach to providing income security.
The pilot would test whether a basic income is a more effective way of lifting
people out of poverty and improving health, housing and employment outcomes.
Through the consultations, Ontario is seeking input from across the province,
including from people with lived experience, municipalities, experts and academics.
The province will also work with Indigenous partners to tailor a culturally
appropriate engagement process that reflects the advice and unique perspective
of First Nations, urban Indigenous, Métis and Inuit communities.
(...)

Basic Income Pilot: public surveyhttps://www.ontario.ca/form/basic-income-pilot-public-survey
Were launching a pilot project to study how giving people a basic income
might reduce poverty and improve health, housing and employment outcomes in
Ontario. Click the "public survey" link above to access the online
version of the survey. Complete the survey and submit it by January 31, 2017
to help us explore new ways to deliver income support across the province.

In June 2016, we asked the Honourable Hugh Segal
for advice on the design of a Basic Income Pilot. Mr. Segal has submitted
a discussion paper, Finding a Better Way: A Basic Income Pilot for
Ontario, which were using as the starting point for this consultation.

Abstract:http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/Detail/?ID=1106
The idea of a Basic Income is much in vogue these days, but is one name being
used to describe two different programs? This paper describes a good
and bad Basic Income design to show why we might want the former,
but could well end up with the latter. While the search for the silver bullet
to once and for all eliminate poverty in a single great swoop is seductive,
it leads us away from consideration of practical steps which, while incremental,
would substantially reduce poverty and inequality.

Here are 10 things to know about Canadas
GAI debate:
[Click the link above to "Ten things..." to read more about each
of the 10 items below.]

1. The various proposed GAI schemes have multiple
names: basic income, guaranteed annual income, negative income tax, guaranteed
livable income, guaranteed adequate income, social dividend, territorial dividend,
state bonus, demogrant, assured annual income and citizens wage.
2. Theres already been a Canadian pilot study done on the GAI (Mncome
Manitoba, 1974 to 1979).
3. Its not clear who would get the GAI or how much of it theyd
get to keep.
4. Many proponents of the GAI believe it would result in lower administrative
costs.
5. The idea of a GAI has support on both the left and right of the political
spectrum.
6. One reason the GAI has support on both the left and right is that advocates
on each side of the spectrum appear to have different ideas as to how generous
the GAI would be.
7. Not all proponents of a GAI agree on its desired outcomes. Depending on
who you ask, the GAI appears to have at least a dozen possible desired outcomes
8. Like any social policy initiative, a GAI could have unintended consequences.
9. Its hard to estimate the GAIs cost.
10. The implementation of a GAI would require a considerable amount of intergovernmental
cooperation.

Ontario guaranteed-income pilot moves
ahead with new reporthttp://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/minimum-income-hugh-segal-ontario-budget-1.3740373August 30, 2016
Briefing note for federal minister raises red flags about guaranteed-income
programs, including costs.
---
The long-debated idea of a guaranteed minimum annual income for Canadians
moves a small step closer to reality this week. Former Conservative senator
Hugh Segal delivers a report this week on how the "basic income pilot"
announced in Ontario's February budget might work. The Ontario government
earmarked $25 million this fiscal year to establish a pilot project in the
province sometime before April 2017, and appointed Segal in late June as an
unpaid special adviser.

Basic Income? Basically unaffordable,
say most Canadianshttp://angusreid.org/guaranteed-income/Two in three say a basic income program would discourage people from
workingAugust 11, 2016  As governments across the country and around
the world mull the concept of a basic income for all their citizens, a new
poll from the Angus Reid Institute finds Canadians broadly supportive of the
idea, and receptive to the two most-commonly cited arguments in favour of
basic income programs: that they would streamline welfare systems, and provide
greater security for workers whose jobs are threatened by improvements in
robotics and artificial intelligence.

Finland considers basic income to reform
welfare systemhttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33977636
By Maija Unkuri, Helsinki
20 August 2015
The Finnish government is considering a pilot project that would see the state
pay people a basic income regardless of whether they work. The details of
how much the basic income might be and who would be eligible for it are yet
to be announced, but already there is widespread interest in how it might
work.

While a universal basic income sounds like a
better way to reduce poverty, it is expensive and could leave some people
worse off. Instead, we need to focus on our broader social safety net to see
how well it works and how we can better guarantee a decent standard of living
for all Canadians. In this policy brief, Noah Zon, Maytrees Director
of Policy and Research, looks to make sense of the competing visions of basic
income, what proposed solutions are on the table, how much they would cost
and how those proposals differ from what we have today.

Last week, the Toronto Star carried an opinion
piece by
Armine Yalnizyan (see below) entitled Basic income? How about basic
services?https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/07/19/basic-income-how-about-basic-services.html
By Armine Yalnizyan
July 19, 2016
Could a provincial basic income approach federal levels of income support,
knowing even $15,000 a year is far below the poverty line for a single person?
Basic math shows this is unlikely. Anyone working under 25 hours a week, 52
weeks a year, at the minimum wage ($11.40) is better off not working 
not a strong government objective...

Basic income is the best public service
we could ask forhttp://www.basicincomecanada.org/basic_income_is_the_best_public_service_we_could_ask_for
July 22, 2016
By Robin Boadway and Roderick BennsAs basic income policy gets more press as a way to
drastically reduce poverty, inevitably there will be those who seek to preserve
the status quo approach.This has served us inadequately for many years and
yet there are some believers who remain. These same believers often seek to
create false policy choices, as Armine Yalnizyan has done in her recent offering
to the Star, Basic income? How about basic services?

Basic income? How about basic services?https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/07/19/basic-income-how-about-basic-services.html
By Armine Yalnizyan
July 19, 2016
Could a provincial basic income approach federal levels of income support,
knowing even $15,000 a year is far below the poverty line for a single person?
Basic math shows this is unlikely. Anyone working under
25 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, at the minimum wage ($11.40) is better off
not working  not a strong government objective. But
its also a safe bet that a basic income pilot proposing an amount far
less than the poverty line is a political non-starter. So,
how could we use this initiative to create a policy win? By expanding the
public services from which anyone can benefit, irrespective of the amount
or source of income.

Ontario Moving Forward with Basic Income
Pilot:
Province Appoints Special Advisor Hugh Segalhttps://news.ontario.ca/mcss/en/2016/06/ontario-moving-forward-with-basic-income-pilot.html
News Release
June 24, 2016
The province has appointed the Honourable Hugh Segal to provide advice on
the design and implementation of a Basic Income Pilot in Ontario, as announced
in the 2016 Budget. Basic income, or guaranteed annual
income, is a payment to eligible families or individuals that ensures a minimum
level of income. Ontario will design and implement a pilot program to test
the growing view that a basic income could help deliver income support more
efficiently, while improving health, employment and housing outcomes for Ontarians.

The province is working to move away from a
complex system of social assistance, to a more holistic, client-centred approach
to a broader income security system. The working group will build on work
already underway and provide advice to government on social assistance reform,
income security, and supports for housing, health and employment. The Basic
Income Pilot announced in the 2016 Budget will help inform this work.

George Thomson, Senior Director of the National
Judicial Institute and former Ontario Provincial Court Judge, who also chaired
the Ontario Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform, will act as the Income
Security Working Groups facilitator.

Swiss voters overwhelmingly reject proposal
for unconditional basic income
According to projections from a polling group, 78% of voters opposed the measurehttp://www.cbc.ca/news/business/swiss-referendum-guaranteed-income-1.3617059
June 5, 2016
Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have guaranteed
everyone in the Alpine nation an unconditional basic income, according to
projections published Sunday by public broadcaster SRF1. The plan could have
seen people in this wealthy nation of eight million people receive about 2,500
Swiss francs ($3,315 Cdn) per month  enough to cover their basic needs.

How a guaranteed minimum income could
work in Canadahttp://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/national/andew+coyne+guaranteed+minimum+income+could+work+canada/11968759/story.html
By Andrew Coyne
June 6, 2016
The Swiss may have just voted to reject a proposal for a guaranteed minimum
income  also known as a guaranteed annual income, basic income guarantee
or, increasingly, just basic income  but that hardly means the idea
is dead. Pilot projects and feasibility studies are in the works across the
developed world, from the Netherlands to California. In Canada, the federal
Liberals, along with governments in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta have expressed
interest in the concept.

NOTE (by Gilles):
This series of reflexions by John Stapleton appeared in last week's
newsletter, but John has combined all of the individual files into
one 25-page file whose link appears above, so I'm reposting this
today if you wish to add it to your Bookmarks or Favorites..
Table of Contents:
(Click the link above to access all seven parts in a single file.)

Part 1 - Guaranteed Annual Income / Basic Income
rules --- pages 1-5
Part 2 - A tale of two GAIs --- pages 6-8
Part 3 - Our emotionally charged income security system --- pages
9-12
Part 4 - Rights and human dignity --- pages 13-15
Part 5 - The problem of work for a guaranteed or basic income ---
pages 16-18
Part 6 - Persons with Disabilities --- pages 19-22
Part 7 - Keeping whats good from the past --- pages 23 to
25

Refundable tax credits and the path
to a basic income guaranteehttps://politudes.com/2016/04/14/refundable-tax-credits-and-the-path-to-a-basic-income-guarantee/
By Robin Boadway
Posted April 14, 2016
We are posting this article with permission of the author and the Basic
Income Guarantee Network, where it was originally published. It is a clear
and simple explanation of a possible route to a guaranteed basic income,
based on federal direct action. The pursuit of a basic income guarantee
(BIG) is gathering momentum, but much of the emphasis has been on setting
up pilot projects.

Source:Politudeshttps://politudes.com/
Politudes provides information capsules, summaries and commentary on national
and international developments in social policy, research on social well-being,
and the effectiveness of social programs and systems.

Basic Income: Let's Not do a Pilot Projecthttp://politudes.com/2016/03/12/basic-income-lets-not-do-a-pilot-project/
March 12, 2016
Politudes Commentary by Terrance Hunsley
Since the election of the Trudeau government, there has been increased interest
in the concept of basic income (also known as guaranteed income, and negative
income tax). The confluence of liberal governments in Ottawa and seven provinces,
as well as two NDP governments, suggests that a political consensus may be
possible to take a historic step forward.

Source:
Politudes.com http://politudes.com/
Politudes provides information capsules, summaries and commentary on national
and international developments in social policy, research on social well-being,
and the effectiveness of social programs and systems.

Quebec Liberals thinking BIG [Basic
Income Guarantee]¸for a changehttp://cultmontreal.com/2016/02/quebec-basic-income-guarantee/
By Peter Wheeland
February 3, 2016
The Basic Income Guarantee, or BIG, is one of those rare beasts that garners
support from politicians and economists on both the left and the right.
(...)
Although the devil is in the details, moving forward on developing a basic
income guarantee is by far the most courageous and innovative move weve
seen from a government that has, until now, displayed little of either quality.

Source:
Cult MTLhttp://cultmontreal.com/ is a daily
web and monthly print publication focusing on Montreal culture, founded and
run by former employees of the Mirror.

Organized by Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)
and the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network, the 15th North American Basic
Income Congress will be held at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, May
12-15, 2016. The title of the Congress is Basic Income: A Meeting Place
for Equality, Rights, and Justice.

Proposals for presentations,
panels, papers and posters are invited, for submission by January 18, 2016.
Please see the Call for Participation [ https://goo.gl/nh37Sy
] for details.

We hope you can be part of a milestone event
in the growing movement for a Basic Income Guarantee!
Please visit Tourism Winnipeg [ http://www.tourismwinnipeg.com/
] for more information.

Basic Income Earth Networkhttp://www.basicincome.org/
The Basic Income Earth network was founded in 1986 to serve as a link between
individuals and groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters
informed discussion on this topic throughout Europe. It extended its scope
from Europe to the earth in 2004

---

Still on the subject of Basic Income:
(also known as "guaranteed annual income".....)

NewsFlash Volume 90, December 2015http://goo.gl/FKUWm2
Click the link to Newsflash volume 90 and then (on the next page that appears)
select an article you wish to read.Sample titles
(click the link immediately above for links to individual articles):

* CANADA: Ruling Partys Womens Commission
calls resolution for UBI experiment
* CANADA: Food banks charity calls for basic income to replace beyond
repair welfare system
* Would a Basic Income corrupt the poor? - November 27, 2015
* First basic income create-a-thon in San Francisco a great success - November
27, 2015
* UNITED STATES: Libertarians debate the Basic Income
* UNITED STATES: Successful launch for Americas first crowdfunded basic
income project - November 23, 2015* Saahil Parekh, Lets be done with subsidies
already
* Daniel Raventós, "The material conditions of freedom"
* Alyssa Hertig, How Bitcoin Could Make Distributing a Universal Basic
Income Actually Possible
* Jack Smith, Even Big Banks Think Robot Automation Will Lead to Further
Income Inequality
* Dozens more articles examining various aspects of Basic Income...

Source:
BIEN Newsflash Email Campaign Archivehttp://goo.gl/z06jUR
- incl. links to five previous issues of Newsflash and a button to join the
Newsflash mailing list so you can receive future isues of the newsletter directly
in your email inbox.

Former Senator Hugh Segal inspires basic
income advocates, says he has never been more optimistichttp://www.basicincomecanada.org/segal_inspires_basic_income_advocates_says_he_has_never_been_more_optimistic
Posted by Roderick Benns
November 17, 2015
By Roderick Benns
Retired Conservative Senator Hugh Segal energized about 50 Ontario advocates
of a basic income guarantee on Saturday who were looking for inspiration and
advice from one of the great leaders of the movement. Segal didnt disappoint,
bringing his trademark humour and optimism in support of a cause he has championed
for 40 years. He says a confluence of events has produced an incredible
window of opportunity for basic income policy and that it was time to seize
this moment.

Leaders and Legacieshttp://leadersandlegacies.com/
Leaders and Legacies is a non-partisan, social purpose news site for asset-based
articles about Canadas leaders, particularly those leaders who are improving
our nation through an emphasis on progressive social policies, healthy communities,
policy changes to support a basic income guarantee, education, renewable energy
and conservation, citizen engagement, and indigenous Canada.

From Robert Rainer (Basic Income Canada Network):
March 27, 2015
Thanks to Toni Pickard, in Kingston, for alerting me to this TEDx talk
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx310zM3tLs
] about "deep learning" by computers and some powerful implications
of this technology. Near the end of his talk, Jeremy Howard illustrates how
automation is leading to a growing and massive gap between productivity and
median income.

And, note his last slide in which he says that
"what doesn't help" is a focus on "better education" and
"incentives to work", and that "what does help" is to
"separate labor from earnings" and a "craft-based economy"
- with basic income shown to be at the foundation of these solutions. Powerful
stuff - and increasingly part of the growing conversation in Canada for why
basic income is so needed.

Guaranteed Annual Income contains three
words: Lets talk about the annual parthttp://vibrantcanada.ca/blogs/john-stapleton/guaranteed-annual-income-contains-three-words-let%E2%80%99s-talk-about-%E2%80%98annual%E2%80%99-partBy John Stapleton
February 4, 2015
[NOTE : Scroll to the bottom of the article for links to three related articles.]
Let's move away from a welfare system that requires reporting of income on
monthly basis.
We all understand the concepts of a guarantee and what is meant by an income
but what do we really mean when we say that a guaranteed income should be
annual? OK  we know that annual
means yearly but does it mean something else? I think it does.
To me, it means that we move away from the welfare approach to income that
calls for reporting and reconciliation of income on a monthly basis.

I talked about this in recent Toronto Star articles
and an op-ed in December 2014 . But the whole idea of annual reconciliation
of income should be one of the first steps towards a true GAI for reasons
other than it being a good first step. Here are some additional thoughts on
the matter....

Idea of guaranteed annual income appealing
but implausible for Canadahttp://www.fraserinstitute.org/research-news/news/display.aspx?id=22084
News Release
January 6, 2015
VANCOUVERDespite the conceptual appeal of a guaranteed annual income,
the idea isnt likely to become reality in Canada, finds a new study
released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian
public policy think-tank.

Guaranteed Annual Income's Obstacles
'Insurmountable,' Fraser Institute Report Argueshttp://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/01/06/gauranteed-annual-income-canada-fraser_n_6423646.html
January 6, 2015
The idea of a minimum annual income for every Canadian could provide a more
efficient alternative social safety net, but reform is an unlikely and unrealistic
option, according to a new report from a conservative think tank. The Fraser
Institute report The Practical Challenges of Creating a Guaranteed Annual
Income in Canada," released Tuesday, said the country could benefit from
administrative savings and efficiencies by moving off the current multi-program,
multi-jurisdictional social welfare system to a single unconditional cash
transfer under the guaranteed income system.

Two Views of a Guaranteed Annual Income
: Segal vs Fraser
A retired Tory senator says it's the best way to alleviate poverty. The Fraser
Institute: Not so much.http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2015/01/06/Guaranteed-Annual-Income/
By David P. Ball
January 6 , 2015
For many, New Year's resolutions might involve hitting the gym, volunteering,
or spending more time with family. For recently retired Conservative Senator
Hugh Segal, one goal he's tried for 45 years to attain is a guaranteed annual
income for lower-income Canadians. This New Year is no different.
(...)
The idea (...) is to provide an automatic top-up to people's income if they
fall below a particular basic-needs threshold. Advocates say it would replace
and improve on the current provincial welfare approach -- which often claws
back payments if recipients find even part-time employment.
(...)
With a federal election on the horizon sometime this year, Segal hopes another
campaign cycle doesn't pass without poverty on the agenda.

Living for All: Ideas to End Povertyhttp://thetyee.ca/Series/2012/05/15/Ideas-To-End-Poverty/
By Katie Hyslop
This three-part Tyee Solutions Society series explores the pros and cons of
three of the most widely advocated proposals to put an end to poverty: the
living wage, a guaranteed annual income, and government wage subsidies

Money for nothing : What effect would
guaranteed annual income have on employers? (PDF
- 338K, 4 pages)http://openpolicyontario.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Money-for-Nothing.pdf
By Liz Bernier
September 5, 2014
For most, earning an extra $10,000 or $15,000 per year sounds like a pretty
good bonus. It sounds even better if its an income bump thats
earned not by slaving away nine-to-five but handed out  no strings attached
 simply for being a Canadian. While it sounds like an impossible dream,
its one potential incarnation of basic income. Also referred to as guaranteed
annual income, basic income generally refers to the idea of an income supplement
thats not earned or tied to any specific activity, such as being employed.
Numerous models of the idea have been proposed, some more drastic than others.

Another species faces extinction:
50 years since Canada's last constitutional amendment on income security http://vibrantcanada.ca/blogs/john-stapleton/another-species-faces-extinction
By John Stapleton
July 21, 2014
John Stapleton explores why its wicked hard to amend Canadas Constitution
and why we needed Constitutional Reform for the establishment of income security
in Canada. He then goes on to say : "We are beginning once again to think
seriously as a nation about a guaranteed annual income and we are starting
to indulge a perennial Canadian question: Where will the money come
from?"
- includes an excellent overview of historical use of Constitutional Amendments
in Canadian history, notably the creation of the Canada Pension Plan via constitutional
amendment in 1964.

"So", concludes Stapleton, "on
July 31, 2014, raise a glass of your favourite libation and toast the anniversary
of the last Constitutional amendment made in support of a national income
security system for all Canadians. Im betting that we will reach the
100th anniversary without further amendment."

Poverty activists push for $20,000 per
person minimum incomeA group of academics and activists is trying to drum up interest in an
ambitious plan to provide every Canadian with a guaranteed minimum level of
income, whether or not they have a job.http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/06/29/poverty_activists_push_for_20000_per_person_minimum_income.html
June 29, 2014By Benjamin Shingler
MONTREALA group of academics and activists is trying to drum up interest
in an ambitious plan to provide every Canadian with a guaranteed minimum level
of income, whether or not they have a job. Rob Rainer, a campaign director
for the Basic Income Canada Network, envisions a country where everyone is
assured a minimum of $20,000 annually to make ends meet [ http://goo.gl/85dEXh
].

Related article:

New poll shows surprising support for
anti-poverty plan: Hepburn
Canadians give backing for a guaranteed annual income to fight poverty.http://goo.gl/y5vI7o

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)http://biencanada.ca/
BICN promotes the idea, and educates the public and policymakers about ways
to support a basic income.

The BIG Push Campaignhttp://www.thebigpush.net/
The BIG Push is a historic national campaign for basic income in Canada. Please
explore our site to learn more about basic income, our campaign goals, current
work and executive team, and much more.
- incl. Home - Overview - Current Work - Learn More - Events - Get Involved
- Endorsements - Donate - Contact

No bottom in sight?
Ontario life through the lens of the single social assistance ratehttp://vibrantcanada.ca/blogs/john-stapleton/no-bottom-sight
By John Stapleton
June 10, 2014
(...)
...the welfare model of benefits has come to an end. Its natural course is
over. The inconvenient problem is that real people
are starving  they cant make ends meet and that the cost of their
poverty greatly exceeds the amounts we could easily spend to eradicate it.

How much do we collectively wish to pay to keep
people in destitution? Its an important question. And at what point
do we stop cutting? Is there an end point to the erosion? We know that the
end point to raising rates was May 1993 and we know that rates have stabilized
for the last 10 years. But we dont know if we have reached bottom.

At the end of June 2014, many people will be
meeting in Montreal to talk about a basic income for all.
[ http://biencanada.ca/congress/
]
[See also the links below the next red horizontal bar on the page you're now
reading.]
Some call it a Guaranteed Annual Income. But can we seriously talk about basic
guarantees when we relentlessly erode the income of the poorest one per cent
of Ontarios population, the 150,000+ souls who receive a maximum of
$626 a month?

My opinion is that we can talk about it. But
we cant have a conversation about getting people off of welfare because
that just leads to destitution. What we really need to do is abandon the welfare
model entirely and reframe the discussion entirely. If we ask governments
to raise the rates, it wont happen. But if we all mobilize to change
the system to one that enforces prosperity instead of destitution, we have
a real chance to succeed.

Well over 200 scholars and activists from more
than 30 countries participated in BIEN CONGRESS 2014!

This website will shortly be integrated in the
soon-to-be-revamped BICN website and information resources be made available
in a more user-friendly format. Meanwhile you can find

A selection of the papers presented at the congress
in the conference program.
Videos from the keynote speakers at BICNs dedicated youtube channel.
Pictures from the BICN 2014 congress at BICN Flicker.
Links to some of the congress reviews at BI News.

The theme of the congress intends to address the recent global economic crisis,
and the dominant austerity response of national and international governing
bodies. Some writers suggest this approach has vastly increased economic inequality,
poverty, financial insecurity and social exclusion across the globe. Individuals
and families in both the developing and developed world are experiencing tremendous
vulnerability and powerlessness against an economy seemingly spiraling out
of control. Many believe the time has now come to radically rethink our response
to the crisis and its resulting precariousness, and the structural organization
of the economic fabric in our societies.

The 2014 BIEN Congress aims to explore the role a universal and unconditional
basic income could play in re-democratizing our economy.

Related links:

The BIG Push : A Basic Income Canada Network
(BICN) Campaignhttp://www.thebigpush.net/
The BIG Push is a historic national campaign for basic income in Canada.

Our goals for The BIG Push campaign are to:
* Raise public awareness of basic income  what
it is and why it is needed
* Build public and policy support for an expanded system of basic income in
Canada
* Secure public commitments to expand the system of basic income in Canada.

Guaranteed livable income plan possible,
Ghiz confirms:
Premier would like to see P.E.I. as centre of pilot projecthttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/guaranteed-livable-income-plan-possible-ghiz-confirms-1.2597948April 4, 2014
P.E.I. Premier Robert Ghiz says he doesn't expect he will discuss the idea
of a guaranteed livable income with the current federal government. (CBC)Premier Robert Ghiz says he'd like to see P.E.I. become
the site of a pilot project for a guaranteed livable income in Canada.The idea has been brought up by various community groups,
but this is the first endorsement by the provincial government.

Guaranteeing a Minimum Income Has Been
a Utopian Dream for Centurieshttp://motherboard.vice.com/blog/guaranteeing-a-minimum-income-has-been-a-utopian-dream-for-centuries
By Brian Merchant
November 14, 2013
Switzerland made headlines with its proposal to dole out $2,800 per month
to every citizen in the nation, thus creating a basic minimum incomeand
ensuring that no Swiss ever had to live below the poverty line again. It's
a seemingly radical effort to redistribute income, and to sew together one
of the most generous safety nets possiblebut it's hardly a new idea.
The utopian notion that a society should pool and distribute its resources
to gaurantee the wellbeing of its most vulnerable citizens dates back over
a millenium: Islamic Caliphates, American revolutionaries, sci-fi writers,
and Martin Luther King, Jr. have all pushed for a basic minimum income. One
of the earliest incarnations first surfaced in Arabia in the early 600s, and
sprung from Islamic religious tradition...
(includes a Canadian section)

Source:
Motherboardhttp://motherboard.vice.com/
Motherboard is traveling the world to uncover the stories that will define
what's coming next. New technologies, cultures, and discoveries are constantly
reshaping this old planet of ours. And it's happening faster than ever before.
With in-depth blogging, longform reporting, and video journalism, Motherboard
investigates the news and events that are already affecting the years to come.

On the sins of wages  when set by
governmentshttp://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/sins+wages+when+governments/9436507/story.htmlBy Andrew Coyne
January 27, 2014
... here we are again, with proposals to raise the minimum wage sweeping the
continent. More than 30 states are considering legislation of some kind to
that effect, while the president is set to make the issue the centrepiece
of his State of the Union address. And where Ontario goes, the other provinces
are sure to follow. Its progress that the inequality debate is now focusing
on raising up the poor, rather than tearing down the rich. But there could
hardly be a less effective, more ill-targeted way to go about it.
(...)
If we really want to help the poor, heres a radical idea: Give them
more money. Only do so directly, using the tax and transfer system, rather
than fixing wages and hoping some of it reaches them. Take from the rich and
give to the poor, and at least you have some idea of who is paying, and who
is benefiting, with less room for the former group to evade their responsibilities
to the latter. And you leave wages to get on with the job for which they were
intended, which is to see that all available labour is employed.

Whether or not this goes as far as a universal
income guarantee, or builds on the success of existing support programs like
the Working Income Tax Benefit, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, or the National
Child Tax Benefit, the principle is the same. Its a minimum income that
should be our objective, not a minimum wage.

Want to help poor people? Give them moneyhttp://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/Column+Want+help+poor+people+Give+them+money/9427492/story.html
January 24, 2014
By Angelina Chapin
Poverty is a hot topic right now. Unfortunately that conversation includes
people such as Kevin OLeary, who thinks its fantastic
that, according to Oxfam, 85 rich people hold the same amount of wealth as
the poorest 3.5 billion. Its fantastic is something you
say about a delicious canapé at a cocktail party  not widespread
poverty.
(...)
When youre poor, you cant focus on the future (and Bill Gates
wasnt raised poor, by the way). You worry about finding boots, not pulling
up your straps. The best way to motivate poor people is with programs
that help lift their gaze from the ground to the horizon. A guaranteed annual
income program would do that.

The idea is simple: in place of a complicated
welfare system, give people enough money to live above the poverty line in
their region (Ontarios Low Income Cut-Off was $22,229 for a single person
in 2011). No strings attached. The less you make, the more guaranteed income
you receive.
(...)
If we could just accept the mound of data showing poor people arent
degenerates who dont set their alarm clocks early enough, there would
be more support for programs that give people enough money to think ahead.
That, Mr. OLeary, would be fantastic.

Just before the recent conclusion of the Second
Session of the 41st Parliament, the Houses Finance Committee quietly
released Income Inequality in Canada: An Overview [ PDF - http://goo.gl/rcjVXM
].

Meanwhile, on December 10th (Human Rights Day) the New York Times contained
an article asking Does Rising Inequality Make Us Hardhearted?
[ http://goo.gl/gIejPF ]

Evidently, it does indeed. And this in turn
helps understand, at least in part, how federal Industry Minister James Moore
could rhetorically question why government should be responsible for the food
security of children. (See journalist Thomas Walkoms analysis [ http://goo.gl/1BEsMg
], in the wake of Minister Moores apology [ http://goo.gl/SD2tPp
]

Basic income [ http://www.thebigpush.net/faqs.html
] can at best make but a small contribution towards reducing income inequality.
Basic incomes greater potential, however, is to help close the gap in
opportunity inequality, by providing a firmer, more stable floor of income
from which opportunity is within closer reach.

Indeed, it was the freedom-enhancing promise of basic income which so enthused
Martin Luther King Jr. Commenting on it he said: A host of positive
psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security.
The dignity of the individual will flourish when the decisions concerning
his life are in his own hands, when he has the assurance that his income is
stable and certain, and when he knows that he has the means to seek self-improvement.

Happily, the idea of basic income appears to be catching on worldwide, for
example witness sizeable citizen support movements in Europe. See also another
New York Times article from December 10th, profiling how basic income is gaining
favour with some American libertarians (Rethinking the Idea of a Basic Income
for All : http://goo.gl/r8qQqf ).

The BIG Push campaign [ http://www.thebigpush.net/
] was founded in April 2013 to secure a Basic Income Guarantee for Canadians.
Find out more by visiting our web site. Follow the campaign via Twitter. Please
consider getting involved. And this Holiday Season, please consider investing
in this historic push for income security in Canada. Thank you.

Encouraging sign of national support for
basic income
A recent national survey [ Sept/Oct 2013, PDF : http://goo.gl/EDpnjl
] for The Trudeau Foundation, by the Environics Institute for Survey Research,
found that 46% of Canadians are in favour of a "guaranteed annual
income" (i.e., basic income)...

Other news on research, debates and developments
related to basic
income can be found at Basic Income News:http://binews.org/

---

Planning is underway for the 15th International
Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network [
http://www.basicincome.org/bien/
], which will take place in Montreal on 26 - 29 June 2014. Mark your calendars,
and stay tuned for further information!

For more info on any of the above, please contact
Jim Mulvale at the University of Regina :
[ Jim.Mulvale@uregina.ca ]

Tory senator says time is right for minister
for poverty reductionhttp://web.archive.org/web/20130509200858/http://www.canada.com/Tory+senator+says+time+right+minister+poverty+reduction/8290397/story.html
By Jordan Press
April 24, 2013
OTTAWA  Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal did something this week that would
be expected of a member of the government: He praised the federal budget during
debate on the document tabled in March. Then he did something a little unexpected:
He said that the budget was only a start and that the government should do
more to tackle poverty, specifically create a new ministerial portfolio dedicated
to reducing poverty in Canada, and a new tax credit for those whose income
was below the poverty line.

NOTE : Both of the above videos include links
(in the right margin of the YouTube page) to similar/related videos, including
an hour-long video of a lecture on fighting poverty in Canada by Senator Segal
that was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada.

Why Guaranteeing the Poor an Income Will
Save Us All In the Endhttp://www.huffingtonpost.ca/hugh-segal/guaranteed-annual-income_b_3037347.html
By Hugh Segal, Conservative Senator
April 8, 2013
In a world where innovation in service delivery and value for money are ever
more vital for government credibility, innovation on poverty reduction is
deeply absent. It certainly has been from recent federal and provincial budgets
in Canada.
[ http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets_2013.htm
]
From Washington to Ottawa to London to Paris, austerity, in different measures
and calibrations, has taken the place of innovation. We do not and have not
taken a fundamental new approach to poverty reduction in a quarter of a century.
While the global numbers of people who live on under a dollar a day has been
reduced massively worldwide because freer trade has allowed productive economies
in Asia to lift tens of millions out of poverty, that happy news has little
impact on poverty reduction and its relative failure in the countries of the
West.
(...)
Knowing that poverty is the most reliable predictor of trouble with the law,
early use of our health care facilities, lower life span, illiteracy, family
violence and unemployment, all of which cost tens of billions of tax dollars
at a time when tax dollars are hard to find, should spur innovation. Never
mind the core inhumanity of not helping the people whom we need as productive,
taxpaying, full participants in our economic mainstream.

Scrapping Welfare : The case for guaranteeing
all Canadians an income above the poverty linehttp://reviewcanada.ca/essays/2012/12/01/scrapping-welfare/
By Hugh Segal
December 2012
Federal and provincial governments have argued for decades that poverty is
a complex problem. Complex is a code word for a problem no one
wants to face directly. Poverty is a complex issue, but in the end it is about
one thinga person not having enough money to meet basic needs of food,
shelter, clothing and transportation for self or family.
(...)
A basic income floor, or refundable income tax credit, or basic annual income
credit, or guaranteed annual incomecall it what you likewould
put a floor under all Canadians beneath which they could not fall, one that
would see them through to working and earning again. Putting limits on what
one can achieve is not what the state should do. We can agree that is excessive
overreach. But putting a floor below which no one can fall is both achievable
and necessary. In a mixed free market Canadian economy where enterprise, risk,
diligence and hard work matter, equality of opportunity is essential if fairness
about access to the economic mainstream is to be real for all. A guaranteed
annual income would be a serious pillar of that opportunity, as important
to us as universal education, safe communities and health insurance.

[ Author Hugh Segal is an Ontario senator and
former president of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. ]

A guaranteed income for Canadians would
eliminate povertyhttp://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Barbara+Yaffe+guaranteed+income+Canadians+would/7767845/story.html
By Barbara Yaffe
January 2, 2013
While a Canada without poor people may sound like a pipe dream, in fact it
is an achievable goal. So says Conservative Sen. Hugh
Segal, who makes an argument for a poverty-free country in the Literary Review
of Canada. Its worth noting that Segal, a former chief of staff to Brian
Mulroney appointed to the Senate by Paul Martin, is more Red Tory than Harper-style
Conservative.

Call for Papers and Presentations:
Basic Income and Economic Citizenship
Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee CongressMay 9-11, 2013, New York Cityhttp://www.usbig.net/index.php
[The basic income guarantee (BIG) is a government insured guarantee that no
citizen's income will fall below some minimal level for any reason.]
---
The Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Congress, Basic Income and
Economic Citizenship, will take place in New York City on Thursday, May 9th
through Saturday, May 11th, 2013. The congress is organized by the U.S.
Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG) in cooperation with the Basic
Income Canada Network (BICN).

The deadline for proposals
is November 30, 2012.

Click either of the two source links below for
more information about the event and the call for papers and presentations.

Why Poverty?http://ww3.tvo.org/whypoverty/main
Why Poverty? is a groundbreaking cross-media event reaching more than 500
million people around the world. TVO is proud to be one of 70 participating
broadcasters kick-starting national and global debates about poverty in the
21st Century.
Links include:
* Documentaries * Understanding Poverty * Ending Poverty * Classroom Tools
* About

Five Reasons Why Income Security Should
Remain A Priorityhttp://theagenda.tvo.org/blog/agenda-blogs/guest-post-five-reasons-why-income-security-should-remain-priorityPedro Barata argues social assistance reform should remain a top priority
even in a time of austerity.
November 21, 2012
(...)
Here are five reasons why income security reform should be top of mind for
the province:
1. Its the right thing to do
2. Its about the economy3. Its about expecting results from public policy4. Its about investing now, saving later5. Its about momentum
To build the kind of society that we want, to do the smart thing for our economic
prosperity, and to capitalize on social consensus when and where it arises,
it is critical that this conversation continues and that reform becomes a
reality in Ontario.

[ Author Pedro Barata is United Way Torontos
vice president of communications and public affairs. He has seen social assistance
from many angles over the past two decades -- as a recipient and advocate,
as community researcher, and as a developer of policy. Most recently, he was
a member of the Ontario Social Assistance Review Advisory Council, whose work
preceded the establishment of the Lankin/Sheikh Commission.

Senator Hugh Segal speaks out in Gananoque
against povertyhttp://www.emcstlawrence.ca/20121101/news/Senator+Hugh+Segal+speaks+out+in+Gananoque+against+poverty
November 1, 2012
By Lorraine Payette
Senator Hugh Segal, Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds, recently spoke at St. Andrew's
Presbyterian Church in Gananoque on the subject of ending poverty in Ontario.
"Today, and for 40 years, said the Senator for
Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds, I have been campaigning for the kind of economic
framework that deals with the worst scourge and most serious social and economic
threat that 'a safe place to call home' continues to face - and that is the
scourge and plague of poverty,". "Poverty is what makes what should
be a strong community weak, makes a potentially unified and coherent society
divided and in pain. And here in Canada, while we have made progress, we can
do much better."(...)
Senator Segal suggested that a basic minimum income would alleviate many of
the problems experienced by the poor in Canada.
(...)Segal's plan would be to use something like the mid
1970s MINCOME program that was put into place in Dauphin, Manitoba. Over a
four-year period, residents of the agricultural community were guaranteed
that, if their crops could not keep them at the poverty line or above, they
would receive additional funding to bring them to that amount. The entire
program, including benefits, researchers and staff to run it, cost only $17
million, and for the most part assisted the working poor. All residents qualified
for this aid if needed, there were no substantial clawbacks of funds if a
person continued to work, and the rules were manageable. The money could be
used as the recipient felt was best.

[Author Senator Hugh Segal is a Conservative
senator from Kingston Ontario and a long-time proponent of the efficiency,
fairness, stability and productivity benefits of a guaranteed annual income.]

When the Harper Government
finally decided that it had a bellyful of Senator Segal's incessant natterings
about inequality in Canada and all that guaranteed annual income nonsense
[ http://goo.gl/wQehd ], they decided to
shift the focus of the Senator's attention and energy to something else less
embarrassing for the Harper Government:

That's par for the course, for this government.
I, for one, am very happy that, despite this lateral transfer, Senator Segal
is pursuing his career-long quest for the most efficient and humane solution
to poverty in Canada. Thanks for hangin' in there, Hugh!By Gilles

NOTE: James Mulvale of Basic Income Canada
Network Canada [ http://biencanada.ca/
] points out in an email that guaranteed annual income is discussed
on page 21 of the Broadbent Institute report, as follows:

"We should consider the idea of a guaranteed
minimum income. Tom Kent, the late social policy giant who was the architect
behind the Pearson-era reforms that shaped modern Canada, left behind a
plea to look at such an approach. Kent argued that we should design a system
to ensure a reasonable level of income for every Canadian, building on the
basic income guarantee we already provide to seniors. Support would be given
in the form of regular payments to those with very low incomes, phased out
with rising income reported via tax returns. He believed that the federal
economies of scale would provide considerable efficiencies and reduce federal/provincial
overlap and friction as provinces would focus on services (Kent 2011). Kents
blueprints find supporters and detractors among both conservatives and progressives.
There are significant issues of cost to be considered, as well as how to
provide income support without discouraging work. Perhaps we could begin
by providing a guaranteed income to persons with disabilities, including
persons who are able to work but cannot do so on a continuing full-time
basis."

Source:
Broadbent Institutehttp://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/The Broadbent Institute seeks to equip the next generation of progressive
thinkers and activists with the ideas and tools they need to build a more
progressive Canada.

1. It is not too late to register for the 14th
Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network. The Congress will take place on 14 - 16 September 2012
in Munich, Germany.The main theme of the Congress deals with "pathways
to a basic income".

Source:Basic Income Canada Network /
Réseau Canadien pour le Revenu Garanti:http://biencanada.ca/
The BIEN Canada vision : All Canadians will have income security, made possible
by ensuring every individual has unconditional access to at least a modest
but adequate income to meet basic material needs.

Governments cant ignore income security
foreverhttp://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/10/hugh-segal-governments-cant-ignore-income-security-forever/
By Hugh Segal
June 10, 2012
There is an invisible elephant in the room in the debate around employment
insurance reform. Coincidentally, it is the same large elephant hiding among
the pots and pans of the Quebec student protest and can even be found on the
edges of NDP leader Thomas Mulcairs angst about the Wests resource-based
economic success damaging Ontarios industrial heartland. And that elephant
goes by the name of income security.

It is reasonable to have an employment insurance
system, funded by contributions from Canadian workers, that provides a financial
bridge to those who have lost their jobs and cannot immediately find a replacement.
When mildly tightening the eligibility to those who really cannot find work
is controversial, however, this shows that EI stands for Extra Income, not
Employment Insurance. That the income may be vital to communities, regions
and lifestyles tied to seasonal jobs is not in question. But such a system
is no longer insurance. It is a basic income floor unrelated to whether or
when work was available.
(...) Except for Newfoundland and Labrador, all provinces
pay welfare rates well beneath the poverty line, helping to feed the costly
pathologies of poverty that fill our hospitals, our homeless shelters, our
prisons and the tragedies of family violence and substance abuse. A
frank discussion about income security, poverty and the kind of income floor
that could obviate other programs that are unbalanced, expensive to operate,
wasteful and disconnected from reality, is long overdue. The elephant is getting
angrier, hungrier and more unfriendly every day. And is becoming far less
invisible.

[Senator Hugh Segal is a Conservative senator
from Kingston Ontario and a long-time proponent of the efficiency, fairness,
stability and productivity benefits of a guaranteed annual income.]

COMMENT (by Gilles):
I guess the Harper Government finally had enough of Senator Segal's
incessant natterings about inequality in Canada and all that guaranteed annual
income nonsense [ http://goo.gl/wQehd ]
to shift the focus of his attention and energy to something else less embarrassing
for the Harper Government.

BOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The 11th North American Basic Income Guarantee
Congress will take place May 3-5, 2012 at the University of TorontoTheme : Putting Equality Back on the Agenda:
Basic Income and Other Approaches to Economic Security for All.

[ * Basic income is an
income guaranteed by government for all, without condition, means test or
work requirement; it's also known as guaranteed annual income. ]

Conference Schedule

Featured speakers included:

* Richard Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus
of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School and
co-author of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better

* Charles Karelis, Research Professor
of Philosophy at The George Washington University and Author of The Persistence
of Poverty: Why the Economics of the Well-Off Can't Help the Poor

* Erik Olin Wright, Department of Sociology,
University of Wisconsin - Madison, author of Envisioning Real Utopias, and
American Society: How it Actually Works

* Armine Yalnizyan, Senior Economist
with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

* John Rook, Chair of the National Council
of Welfare and CEO of Potential Place Society

* Evelyn Forget, Professor, University
of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine

* Trish Hennessy, Director of Strategic
Issues for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

* Dan Meades, Director, Vibrant Communities
Calgary.

The North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress
is a joint Conference of the U.S. and Canadian Basic Income Guarantee Networks.

Source:Basic Income Canada Network
BIEN Canada is the Canadian affiliate of the Basic
Income Earth Network. BIEN Canada was founded at the 2008 international
BIEN Congress to promote dialogue, public education and networking about basic
income in Canada. BIEN Canada is composed of individuals and organizations
interested in promoting dialogue around basic income.

Call for Papers:
14th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network: Pathways to a Basic income
September 14 to 16, 2012 in Munich, Germanyhttp://www.bien2012.de/en

Call for Papers, Proposals, and Events:The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2012

The debate about an unconditional basic income
has attracted public attention in a number of countries in recent years. Financial,
debt, and ecological crises are causing growing numbers of people to look
for political alternatives to the existing economy and the way income is distributed
within it. With the debate entering this crucial phase, the 2012 BIEN Congress
will discuss possible pathways and barriers towards establishing and implementing
Basic Income. The conference aims to present an opportunity for an open, interdisciplinary
discussion of the problems and questions surrounding Basic Income.

Click the link above for more information about
the call for papers and about the Congress itself.

Livable
Income For Everyone
British Columbia-based Livable4All advocates and provides information
on the world social movement for Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) or Basic
Income -- formerly known as Guaranteed Annual Income.

An end to the perpetual welfare trap?
Guaranteed incomes debatedhttp://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/an-end-to-the-perpetual-welfare-trap-167004295.html
By: Mary Agnes Welch
August 22, 2012
Bringing back a discarded government program could save taxpayers
millions in health-care and bureaucracy costs and dramatically shrink
poverty, just as it did in Dauphin almost 40 years ago. The
problem is, even the province's left-leaning NDP government likely
doesn't have the political will to use it.
That was the feeling Tuesday at a standing-room-only lecture about
a hot public-policy idea -- a guaranteed annual income that would
replace welfare.
It's an idea with roots in Manitoba. Nearly 40 years ago, Dauphin
was the site of an experiment on the effects of a guaranteed income.
Every low-income person in town, including the working poor and people
not eligible for welfare, got a top-up to ensure a basic level of
income.
At a discussion hosted by Winnipeg Harvest, University of Manitoba
researcher Evelyn Forget said the results were remarkable: People
had much better health, far more children graduated from high school
and people didn't stop working just because they were guaranteed an
income.
(...)
Guaranteed annual income had a rebirth as an interesting, if seemingly
radical, policy alternative to the confusing, expensive hodge-podge
of welfare systems in Canada. We've already adopted some targeted
elements of a GAI, such as the national child benefit and the guaranteed
income supplement for seniors. Yukon toyed with a version of the GAI
in 2007, and there was an international conference focused on the
idea in Toronto in May of this year.- includes an overview of the Mincome Manitoba experiment of the
mid-1970s, specifically in Dauphin Manitoba.

A Town Without Poverty?
Canada's only experiment in guaranteed income finally gets reckoninghttp://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/4100
By Vivian Belik
September 5, 2011
WHITEHORSE, YKTry to imagine a town where the government paid
each of the residents a living income, regardless of who they were
and what they did, and a Soviet hamlet in the early 1980s may come
to mind. But this experiment happened much closer to home. For a four-year
period in the '70s, the poorest families in Dauphin, Manitoba, were
granted a guaranteed minimum income by the federal and provincial
governments. (...) Beginning in 1974, Pierre Trudeau's Liberals and
Manitoba's first elected New Democratic Party government gave money
to every person and family in Dauphin who fell below the poverty line.
Under the programcalled Mincomeabout 1,000
families received monthly cheques. Unlike welfare,
which only certain individuals qualified for, the guaranteed minimum
income project was open to everyone. It was the firstand to
this day, onlytime that Canada has ever experimented with such
an open-door social assistance program.

The Manitoba Mincome Experimenthttp://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/2007/11/social-policy-manitoba-mincome.html
November 15, 2007
By M. L'Heureux
The Mincome Project, also called the Manitoba Basic Guaranteed Annual
Income Experiment, was the first large scale social experiment
in Canada and was designed to evaluate the economic and social consequences
of an alternative social welfare system based on the concept of negative
income tax (NIT). The experiment took place between 1975 and
1979 in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba. The research project was jointly
funded by the Federal Government of Canada and the Manitoba Government.
Little is known about the experiment as the federal government chose
to shelve the report for reasons still unknown to the public. The
raw data that was accumulated during the experiment is still relevant
to todays Guaranteed Income debates and is available in some
academic libraries and in all provincial legislatures.
Source:
Legal Checkpoint Bloghttp://legalcheckpoint.blogspot.com/

Related links:

Dauphin's
great experiment: Mincome,
nearly forgotten child of the '70s, was a noble experimentBy Lindor Reynolds
November 28, 2009
DAUPHIN  Thirty-five years ago, this pretty town surrounded
by farm land and far from big cities was the site of a revolutionary
social experiment. For five years, Mincome
ensured there would be no poverty in Dauphin. Wages were topped up
and the working poor given a boost. The experiment,
a collaboration between Ed Schreyer's provincial NDP and the Liberal
government of Pierre Trudeau, would cost millions before the plug
was pulled. The program saw one-third of Dauphin's
poorest families get monthly cheques. In 1971,
at a federal-provincial conference held in Victoria, Manitoba expressed
interest in being the testing ground for a guaranteed income project.
The Schreyer government applied for funding. In June, 1974, Mincome
was approved...
Source:Winnipeg Free Press

---

The
Town with No Poverty:
The Health Effects of a Canadian Guaranteed Annual Income Field Experiment
By Evelyn L. Forget (University of Manitoba)
This paper has two purposes. First, it documents the historical context
of MINCOME, a Canadian guaranteed annual income field experiment (1974
to 1979). Second, it uses routinely collected health administration
data and a quasi-experimental design to document an 8.5 percent reduction
in the hospitalization rate for participants relative to controls,
particularly for accidents and injuries and mental health. We also
found that participant contacts with physicians declined, especially
for mental health, and that more adolescents continued into grade
12. We found no increase in fertility, family dissolution rates, or
improved birth outcomes. We conclude that a relatively modest GAI
can improve population health, suggesting significant health system
savings.
Source:University of Toronto
Press

THE TOWN WITH NO POVERTY:
A history of the North American Guaranteed Annual Income Social Experiments
(PDF - 240K, 29 pages)http://www.livableincome.org/rMM-EForget08.pdf
By Evelyn L. Forget
Community Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
University of Manitoba

Source:
Livable 4 All (Victoria BC)http://www.livableincome.org/
Livable4All began in 2003 as a group called Livable Income For Everyone
(LIFE) to advocate and provide information on the world social movement
for Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) or Basic Income -- formerly known
as Guaranteed Annual Income.

Source:Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
The Basic Income European Network (BIEN) was founded in 1986 to serve as a
link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic
income, i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis,
without means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion
on this topic throughout Europe. BIEN expanded its scope from European to
the Earth in 2004.

Tough
on poverty, tough on crime?
By Chandra Pasma
May 27, 2011
Earlier this year, Senator Hugh Segal published a
great op-ed in the Toronto Star calling for those concerned about
crime to get tough on poverty. Less than 10 per cent of Canadians live
beneath the poverty line but almost 100 per cent of our prison inmates come
from that 10 per cent. There is no political ideology, on the right or left,
that would make the case that people living in poverty belong in jail,
the Senator argued. To be tough on crime means we must first be tough
on the causes of poverty, he concludes. Segal
argues for a Guaranteed Annual Income, also known as a Guaranteed Livable
Income, noting that it would take only $12,000-$20,000 annually to bring a
person above the poverty line but we spend $147,000 a year per federal prisoner.
Source:Citizens for Public
Justice (CPJ)
Mission : to promote public justice in Canada by shaping key public policy
debates through research and analysis, publishing and public dialogue. CPJ
encourages citizens, leaders in society and governments to support policies
and practices which reflect Gods call for love, justice and stewardship.

Christopher Sarlo...
... and guaranteed annual income?

I was cleaning up some links on the Guaranteed
Annual Income Links page of my site when I got sidetracked re-reading parts
of a ten-year-old report on poverty measurement by Christopher Sarlo entitled
Measuring Poverty in Canada. Professor Sarlo, the father of the so-called
"calorie-from-starvation diet", is the Fraser Institute's poverty
poster boy, and his work on poverty in Canada is considered by many to be
the Bible of absolute poverty measurement in this country --- the "Sarlo
Poverty Line".

I decided to highlight the 2001 Sarlo report (the link
below) because you (speaking to my leftie buddies here...) might be as surprised
as I was to learn in that report that the absolute poverty poster boy advocated
a guaranteed annual income as a "more efficient alternative" to
what he saw as ineffective programs and policies.

Hmmm - when someone from the Fraser Institute endorses
a guaranteed income scheme, the Devil must be in the details.
Follow the links below if you're curious...

Measuring
Poverty in CanadaJuly 2001
By Christopher Sarlo
Excerpt:
"In Canada, there is a vast array of inefficient and employment-reducing
programs and policies with overlapping function and jurisdiction: welfare
and minimum wage are two examples. A more efficient alternative might be a
guaranteed annual income issued as a
universal demogrant--a transfer payment to all citizens (or residents) with
no conditions on employment, earning, or income. "

For more details concerning the Sarlo guaranteed
annual income proposal,
see p. 55-56 in Part II of the report (the second link below).

NEW! Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
and affiliates launch Basic Income News[A Basic Income is an income unconditionally
granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement.
So Basic Income = Guaranteed Annual Income.]
May 25, 2011

Basic Income
News is the online incarnation of the BIEN
NewsFlash (see the link below) and affiliated publications, such as
the USBIG Newsletter.
The BIEN NewsFlash and its predecessor, the BIEN Newsletter, have been in
publication since 1986. The USBIG Newsletter has been going since the year
2000. It is the creation of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (the USBIG
Network), BIENs affiliate in the United States.

Basic Income News will have frequently updated
news stories about Basic Income around the world, provided initially by BIEN
and USBIG. We hope soon that many more of BIENs affiliates will contribute
as well. If you have news about Basic Income that you think should be published
in Basic Income News, please contact the editors at <desk@binews.org>.

Related links:

BIEN
NEWSFLASH 64, May 2011 (PDF - 147K, 17 pages)
Table of contents:
1. NEW! BIEN and affiliates launch Basic Income News: http://binews.org/
2. BIEN Congress 2012 will be held in Munich, Germany
3. New Issue of Basic Income Studies
4. Basic income book series: call for proposals
5. Events
Seoul, Delhi, Namur, Berlin, Lincoln
6. Glimpses of national debates
- EUROPEAN UNION: EU-Parliament in favour of adequate minimum income
- FRANCE: Former Prime Minister launches basic income campaign
- GREECE: Basic Pension Introduced
- IRAQ: Muqtada al-Sadr Endorses Alaskan Policy
- ITALY: Activist Movement for basic income
- KUWAIT: A Temporary, Partial basic income for Citizens Only
- LATIN AMERICA: Head of UN Commission Says Several Latin America Countries
Could Implement basic income
- UNITED STATES: American Political Science Association Task Force Will Discuss
BIG
- SWITZERLAND: A referendum on basic income?
7. Publications
8. New Links
9. About the Basic Income Earth Network
---
BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers
throughout the world.
Requests for free subscription should be sent to bien@basicincome.org

---

New blogs at USBIG
May 19, 2011
The USBIG Network has added the following two blogs to its website. Both have
news and opinion on those topics going back to 2000, and both will continue
to be updated periodically. Both allow for reader comments and feedback.

* The
Alaska Dividend Blog
The Alaska Dividend, properly called the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), is
the closest thing to a basic income guarantee that exists in the world today.
It is a small, yearly dividend, financed indirectly from oil revenues, paid
by the state government to every citizen who lives in Alaska-including all
men, women, and children. This blog has news and commentary about the Alaska
Dividend as a small basic income that can provide a model to be copied elsewhere.

BIEN Canada
- Towards Income Security for All Canadians
BIEN Canada is the Canadian affiliate of the Basic Income Earth Network. BIEN
Canada was founded at the 2008 international BIEN Congress to promote dialogue,
public education and networking about basic income in Canada. BIEN Canada
is composed of individuals and organizations interested in promoting dialogue
around basic income.

In 1985, the Royal Commission on the Economic
Union and Development Prospects for Canada (the "MacDonald Commission")
recommended, among other fixes, a free-trade agreement between Canada
and the U.S. and a universal income security program.
- Read the excerpt below, and click the link for more detailed information.

Volume
Three, Part 2 (PDF - 7.1MB, 163 pages)
1985
Excerpt (page 173) :
The centre-piece for Commissioners' proposals ... is establishment
of a Universal Income Security Program (UISP), which would
entail a universally available income supplement, subject to reduction
at a relatively low "tax-back" rate. Such a scheme, delivered
either through the federal tax system or by means of direct transfers,
appears to fall within federal jurisdiction. The present federal responsibility
for Family Allowances, Unemployment Insurance and Old Age Security
clearly establishes a broad federal mandate for income security, of
which the UISP is a logical development. Moreover, we believe that
individual provinces acting alone would not be capable of bringing
such a program into operation. To create the UISP, however, would
involve a major change in federal-provincial relations, a change which
Commissioners think would be healthy for the federal system. (more...)

The costs of poverty vs guaranteed annual
income:

How
paying peoples way out of poverty can help us all
Anna Mehler Paperny and Tavia Grant
May 5, 2011
(...) Despite Canadas reputation for a strong social safety net, the
country is becoming economically polarized. And the decades-old dominant economic
dogma that growing wealth among societys highest earners would trickle
down to those less fortunate is being challenged by an alternative approach:
Eliminate crushing poverty among the lowest earners, and wealth will trickle
up. (...) Homelessness costs taxpayers money  in both foregone wealth
and social service spending. As evidence of the social and financial costs
of inequality mounts, a growing body of research indicates paying to get people
out of poverty can be an economic boon. Calgarys
business community crunched the numbers: It costs four times more to pay for
a years worth of emergency shelter, emergency-room medical care and
law-enforcement for one homeless person than it costs to fund that persons
supportive housing for a year. More recent figures
have backed them up when it comes to the costs of poverty: A study earlier
this year from Torontos St. Michaels Hospital found homeless patients
cost hospitals an average of $2,559 more than their housed counterparts. At
the same time, research into projects that guaranteed people a minimum annual
income indicated savings in everything from social services and health care
to law enforcement.

Related link:

The
high costs of hardship
May 5, 2011
Figures in three infographics paint an unsettling picture of Canada's unemployment
levels, income gaps and costs associated with homelessness
* Percentage of people on low incomes, 2000-2010
* Number of people unemployed for 52 week or longer
* Annual household income after tax by income quintile, average. earnings
in 1990 and in 2008

Lets
refocus on a guaranteed annual income
Senator Hugh Segal
January 19, 2011
It was 40 years ago that a former mayor of Windsor, former provincial minister
and Ontario senator issued one of the greatest challenges to Canadas
citizens and leaders. Sadly, however, the centrepiece of the lifelong work
of David Croll remains unfulfilled and his challenge remains unaddressed.

In the introduction to his 1971 report of the
Senate committee on poverty, Mr. Croll stated bluntly: Poverty is the
great social issue of our time. The poor do not choose poverty. It is at once
their affliction and our national shame. No nation can achieve true greatness
if it lacks the courage and determination to undertake the surgery necessary
to remove the cancer of poverty from its body politic.

Mr. Croll, one of Canadas greatest Liberal
parliamentarians, made his clarion call for the establishment of a guaranteed
annual income (GAI) in that report. It was, the committee concluded, the most
efficient and least wasteful mechanism for lifting millions of Canadians out
of poverty. He was right four decades ago, and he is still right today.
(...)
Forty years ago Mr. Croll said: The children of the poor (and there
are many) are the most helpless victims of all, and find even less hope in
a society where welfare systems from the very beginning destroy their chances
of a better life. Forty years later, the time for action on the GAI
is upon us. Leaving the challenge of poverty to the side is to deny the essential
decency and balance Canadians have always shared.
Source: Globe and Mail

Goar:
Anti-poverty success airbrushed out
January 11, 2011
By Carol Goar
Sitting tantalizingly in a warehouse in Winnipeg are 2,000 boxes of information
about one of the most fascinating social policy experiments in Canadian history.
Evelyn Forget, a professor of health sciences at the University of Manitoba,
fought for five years to get access to those boxes, owned by Archives Canada.
She finally succeeded in 2009, but the bulging files  statistics, completed
questionnaires, interview transcripts, all on paper  overwhelmed her.
Until it is computerized, analyzing the data in a systematic way would
be incredibly expensive, she says. Nevertheless, she has been able to
piece together part of the story, using the census, public health insurance
records and the recollections of researchers and participants.
Source:Toronto Star

And Another Oldie Goldie:

Income
Security Reform and the
Concept of a Guaranteed Annual Income (PDF - 24MB,
50 pages)
Grady, Patrick and Kapsalis, Constantine
Government and Competitiveness Project, School of Policy
Studies, Queens University1995
This paper is focused on a specific reform strategy - the Guaranteed Annual
Income (GAI).It addresses an age-old issue of social welfare programming in
a market
economy. How do we maintain an incentive to work yet provide a safety net
for those shaken loose by large-scale yet seemingly continuous change? Why
participate in a losing cause if the consequences of not participating are
not all that bad materially? The problem is particularly acute when the financial
rewards of work and the type of work available both continue to deteriorate
for a very broad class of people, as is happening in Canada.
(Source: Abstract ]

Basic Income Earth Network Newsflash 63
November 2010

Basic
Income Earth Network (BIEN)
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European
Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an
international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups
committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion
of the topic throughout the world.
- incl. links to: * About BIEN * About Basic Income * NewsFlash * Congresses
* Papers and Resources * Membership * Links * Contact

CALGARY (CA), 29 March 2010: Conference by Senator
Hugh Segal
On March 29, 2010, Canadian Senator Hugh Segal spoke to the Sheldon Chumir
Foundation for Ethics in Leadership in Calgary. Senator Segal made an
impassioned argument for the ethical necessity of a Guaranteed Annual
Income as a means of eliminating poverty.
His remarks can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ChumirEthics Further information:http://www.chumirethicsfoundation.ca/

Upcoming
North American event:
NEW YORK (US), 25  27, February 2011: The Tenth Annual North American
Basic
Income Conference: Models for Social Transformation
This conference will be held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of
the Eastern Economic Association (EEA). Attendees at the USBIG conference
are welcome to attend any of the EEAs events. The North American
Basic Income Conference was originally 'the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee
Network Conference,' and was organized by the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee
(USBIG) Network. It expanded in 2010 to become a joint event of the USBIG
Network and the Basic Income / Allocation Universelle Canada (BI/AU Canada).
Since then, it has been a North American Conference held on alternate
years in the United States and Canada.

The leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Yukon, Steve Cardiff,
has put forward a notice of motion for the Yukon Government to introduce
a Guaranteed Minimum Annual Income Allowance. According to the official
report from Yukon's legislative assembly, he urged "the Yukon government
to implement a guaranteed minimum annual income allowance for all eligible
Yukon citizens as recommended by Conservative Party Senator Hugh Segal,
the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, the Macdonald Commission,
the National Council of Welfare, the Special Senate Committee on Poverty
and the federal working paper on social security.

Saskatchewan is one of few provinces in Canada that does not have a formally
adopted and detailed plan to tackle poverty. During the International
Week for the Elimination of Poverty (17  23 October) a new network
called Poverty Free Saskatchewan released a discussion paper calling upon
the provincial government to develop such a plan, in collaboration with
people living in poverty and other community sectors. This paper is entitled
Lets Do Something about Poverty and can be found at
http://www.povertyfreesask.ca/
Further information:
Jim Mulvale, Faculty of Social Work, University of Regina jim.mulvale@uregina.ca

5. Publications
6. New Links

* News from BIEN Canada
BIEN Canada has adopted a constitution and is in the process of incorporating
and registering
an official name. The website address is http://biencanada.ca/

7. About BIEN
Source:NewsFlash
- newsletter (incl. archives)
BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500
subscribers throughout the world.
Free subscription : send a request by email to bien@basicincome.org

To
end poverty, guarantee everyone in Canada $20,000 a year.
But are you willing to trust the poor?
By Erin Anderssen
November 20, 2010
(...)what if we gave ... poor Canadians something to count on: cash directly
in their pockets, with no conditions, trusting people to do what's right for
them? It's a bold idea, and it runs counter to the paternal approach to poverty
that polices what is done with our money and tries to strong-arm
the poor into better lives. That approach has had limited success: The wage
gap continues to grow, and one in 10 Canadians still struggles below the low-income
line. The idea of giving money to the poor without strings is not new. It
melds altruism and libertarianism, saying both that the best way to fight
poverty is to put cash in poor people's pockets and that people can make their
own choices better than bureaucrats can. As a result, it can find support
in theory from both left and right. It has been tested with success in other
countries, and now it has re-entered the Canadian political conversation.
This week, a House of Commons committee on poverty released a report proposing
a guaranteed basic income for Canadians with disabilities, on the model already
available to seniors. The Senate released a similar report this spring calling
for a study of how it would work for all low-income Canadians.
[ 1410 comments ]
Source:Globe and Mail

Earlier related
Globe & Mail article:

Should
Canada have a guaranteed annual income?By Kevin Milligan
October 20, 2010
The idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI) periodically surfaces in Canadian
policy discussions as a transformational change to income support programs.
Advocates can be found coming both from the left and the right. What is the
GAI and should it be adopted?
[ 176 comments ]
Source:Globe and Mail

Basic Income Studies - November 2010 issue
(e-journal)
November 01, 2010
Berkeley Electronic Press is pleased to announce the following articles recently
published in Basic Income Studies.

Source:Basic Income Studies is the
first peer-reviewed journal devoted to basic income and related issues of
poverty relief and universal welfare. An exciting venture supported by major
international networks of scholars, policy makers, and activists, Basic Income
Studies is the only forum for scholarly research on this leading edge movement
in contemporary social policy.

Guaranteed Annual Income Student Essays

On June 1, 2010, the Progressive Economics Forum
(PEF) announced the winners of its annual student essay contest for this year.
In addition to the winning essay on guaranteed annual income from the Graduate
category for 2010 (whose link appears below), the PEF
Annual Student Essay Contest page offers links to three essays in the
Undergraduate category (one winner and two honourable mentions) as well as
links to two honourable mentions in the Graduate category. Click the essay
contest link for essays on:
* Poverty and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa
* Economic prosperity and democratization in developing countries
* An examination of political stability and growth, with special attention
to the Kenyan experience
* The Russian financial crisis of 1998, uncontrolled markets and weak government
* The benefits of international trade liberalization

BONUS! The PEF
Annual Student Essay Contest also includes links to the
25 winning essays since the contest began in 2001. Entries cover
a range of subjects related to "political economy, economic theory or
an economic policy issue, which best reflects a critical approach to the functioning,
efficiency, social and environmental consequences of unconstrained markets."

The next link below is one of the 25 essays
you'll find at the above link.
I'm including it here because it's also about GAI...

Ensuring
Equality:
Guaranteed Annual Income and Democratic Legitimacy (PDF - 362K,
40 pages)
By 2008 Undergraduate co-winner Evan Rosevear
Original Submission Date: July 19th 2007
In order to facilitate the democratic legitimacy of the Canadian state an
institutional system which guarantees the economic security and independence
of all Canadians is needed. This guarantee must be universal, and constructed
not as a means by which supplicants receive assistance from their supposed
betters, but as a right of citizenship. A right which facilitates political
engagement.

Source:Progressive Economics Forum
(PEF)
PEF aims to promote the development of a progressive economics community in
Canada. The PEF brings together over 125 progressive economists, working in
universities, the labour movement, and activist research organizations.

The first link below is to a video clip of host/moderator
Steve Paikin speaking with GAI champion Senator Hugh Segal about his proposal
to scrap most of Canada's financial assistance programs and re-assign their
budgets to a national, adequate and sustainable guaranteed annual income program.
The second link (which is actually part of the first link due to stoopid page
layout) is to a debate on the costs and consequences of establishing a GAI
in Canada, and it involves a vigorous debate between the Red Tory Senator
and a National Post editorial board member. You can tell it's a vigorous debate
just from the number of times you hear the debaters say "with due respect"
- count 'em...
(Have you ever noticed that sometimes "With due respect" comes across
as "You're full of crap, you windbag"??)

The Debate: Guaranteed Annual Income
(video, 36 minutes)
NOTE: To access the second video, click the link above (to the first video),
then click on the tab just above the video screen that says "Guaranteed
Annual Income"
(Stoopid page layout.)
The Debaters:Senator Hugh Segal discusses his proposal for a made-in-Canada guaranteed
annual income program with: Tasha Kheiriddin, columnist and member of the editorial board of the
National PostEvelyn Forget, professor of Health Economics at the University of ManitobaKen Battle, President of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy. Steve Paikin moderates (or should I say referees) the discussion.

__________________________

Related links from TV Ontario:The links below are from a sidebar on the main page for the GAI videos
(the first link under the above red bar)

Times of economic turmoil raise difficult questions
but also offer radical new opportunities to rethink and perhaps even rebuild
the economic fabric of our society. The current global economic recession
is no exception. In recent months a growing number of activists and scholars
have promoted the idea of a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) as a feasible and
desirable policy instrument to help us out of the current economic crisis.

The prospects and challenges of a BIG policy
at a time of economic upheaval is the topic of a 2 day conference held on
15-16 April 2010 at the University of Montréal, hosted by the Centre
de Recherche en Éthique de lUniversité de Montréal
(CRÉUM), BIEN Canada and the US Basic Income Guarantee network (USBIG).

This first collaboration between the US and
Canadian chapters of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) includes keynote
addresses from Dr. Louise Haagh (University of York), Prof. Guy Standing (University
of Bath), and Senator Eduardo Suplicy (São Paulo, Brasil), as well
as a Political Forum on The Politics of the Basic Income Guarantee
featuring Senators Art Eggleton and Hugh Segal, Tony Martin MP, Amélie
Châteauneuf (spokesperson of FCPASQ), Rob Rainer (Executive Director
of Canada Without Poverty), Al Sheahen (Executive Committee Member of USBIG),
and Sheila Regehr (Director of National Council of Welfare).

In addition there will be 5 panels with more
than a dozen papers from scholars and practitioners discussing a variety of
issues related to the prospects and challenges of introducing a BIG in Canada
or the US.

Everyone is welcome to attend and participation
is free.
To register for the conference please email Jurgen De Wispelaere
at bigmontreal2010@gmail.com
with your name and institutional affiliation.

Basic
Income Earth Network
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European
Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an
international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups committed
to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion of the topic
throughout the world.

On
Basic Income: Interview with Götz Werner
German Millionaire is super advocate for basic income
Posted in die tageszeitung / translated 12/09
Götz Werner, founder of a major drugstore chain (1700 stores), is one of
the most influential advocates of basic income in Germany. Werner is not only
a super advocate for guaranteed income, he is also one of the top 500 richest
people in Germany.

Why
the United States should implement Basic Income
By Sam Alexander
October 2009
Welfare, food stamps, and homeless shelters (...) explicitly stratify society
into classes, enforcing the obsolete notion that the man who doesn't do labor
is a less valuable member of society. This is why Basic Income should be absolutely
universal- even Warren Buffett and Bill Gates must be given automatic "welfare",
for only then can the dole rise above its condescending, humiliating nature.

Economic
Foundations and Environmental Progress
By Alexander Bishop
November 2009
(...) The more efficient and technologically advanced the culture, the fewer
people they need working. The economy rewards technological stagnation in labour-saving
devices and designed obsolescence. The economy suffers when we are healthier,
greener, and consume less. The solution is a movement away from job dependant
monetary circulation to a guaranteed livable income. This will allow positive
change to occur without causing job losses leaving people unable to meet their
basic needs.

Hugh Segal: A real fix for poverty [expired
link]
Canadas welfare system is stuck in the Victorian era, wasting billions.
Its time to drop the old, failed approach December 15, 2009
By Senator Hugh Segal
Any company, domestic or international, that invested $150-billion annually
in a specific project and saw no change in the quality of results would initiate
a serious review or serious staff changes at the top. And if it did not, investors,
both individual and institutional and shareholders generally would justifiably
complain. That is where the federal and provincial governments now find themselves
on the challenge of poverty. StatsCan reports that Ottawa and the provinces
have, since 2007, spent $150-billion annually on transfers in a range of income
security programs unrelated to education and health care. This is serious taxpayer
coin  funds that might better be used in tax cuts, defence, research and
development and other productive investments for economic or national security
in the future. (...) Governments have a rare opportunity to break out of the
old path dependency on Victorian-age welfare programs and embrace a simpler,
tax-based radical re-cast of how we address poverty.
Source:National Post

How
to make real progress against povertyThe spread of food banks shows the dysfunction in Canadian income security
programsNovember 17, 2009
By Conservative Senator Hugh Segal
(...) A minimum income allowance for all would end poverty, expand human dignity
and build Canadian society. And the savings in hospitals, prisons and police
work, where the poor are wildly overrepresented, would produce real savings,
less waste and a much more productive use of taxpayer money.
Source:The Globe and Mail

The
View From Here:
How a Living Wage Can Reduce Poverty in Manitoba (PDF - 1.8MB, 38
pages)
November 2009
The living wage is calculated as the hourly rate at which a household can meet
its basic needs, once government transfers have been added to the familys
income (such as the Universal Child Care Benefit) and deductions have been subtracted
(such as income taxes and Employment Insurance premiums). (...) There is a paradox
when, despite steady economic growth and consistently low unemployment rates,
we have the second highest level of child poverty in the country and the third
highest poverty rate. The living wage provides a way to address this paradox.
It provides a means for ensuring that individuals and families with children
can live with dignity and therefore fully participate in their communities and
at work.
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

---

Possibilities
and Prospects: The Debate Over a Guaranteed Income (PDF - 361K,
38 pages)
By Margot Young and
James P. Mulvale
October 30, 2009
The idea of a guaranteed income has a long and respectable history in Canadian
political and economic thought. Recently, in the face of both wide criticism
of the Canadian income security system and growing recognition of the unacceptability
of current poverty rates, there has been a resurgence in calls for implementation
of a Canadian guaranteed income. But the idea is a controversial one; progressive
activists, academics, and politicians disagree about the desirability and the
practicality of a guaranteed income. This report traces the history of guaranteed
income proposals in Canada, reviews the arguments in favour and against, and
suggests a number of other social welfare measures that should be central elements
of any reform program, but that guaranteed income debates often ignore.
Source:Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Petition
for a Canadian
Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) : Citizen's IncomeSign if you support:
- the GAI (Guaranteed Annual Income) - also known as CI (Citizens Income)
- as a solution to persistent poverty in Canada.
- the full maintenance and improvement of the EI (Employment Insurance) and
CPP (Canada Pension Plan) programs toward full universality.
- the elimination of means-tested welfare to be replaced by the GAI as a universal
social right of Canadian citizenship.
- the belief that this is a requirement for Canada to meet the UDHR (Universal
Declaration of Human Rights) objectives in achieving income security, social
inclusion and human dignity for all of its citizens.I signed, because I support these views.
Gilles

Income
Security for All Canadians:
the Potential for a Guaranteed Income Framework for CanadaWorkshop
October 1-2, 2009 (Ottawa)
"The purpose of this workshop is to share perspectives and build understandings
about approaches to Guaranteed Income. BIEN Canada believes that such sharing
will aid the continued growth and mobilization of a network of individuals and
organizations in Canada committed to realizing an expanded basic/guaranteed
income system for Canada, and thus to realizing income security for all Canadians.
The workshop is designed to both inform and engage participants in discussion
of a variety of approaches and models for achieving Guaranteed Income and universal
income security. The target audience includes first voice persons
(those with the lived experience of poverty), academics and researchers, social
justice movements, community organizations, social and economic policy analysts,
and government officials and politicians."

Income
Security for All Canadians:
Understanding Guaranteed Income (PDF - 181K, 12 pages)
This paper provides an introduction to guaranteed or basic income, highlighting
the policy debates and the history of the idea in Canada. Participants in the
BIEN Canada Ottawa conference should read this paper to provide context for
the detailed policy discussions and conversations of the conference.

Working
Through the Work Disincentive (PDF - 396K, 26 pages)
April 8, 2009
Concerns about a possible work disincentive appear to be one of the biggest
obstacles to guaranteed livable income. In this paper, presented at the USBIG
Congress 2009, policy analyst Chandra Pasma examines the assumptions that underlie
the belief in a work disincentive. Experimental evidence suggests that the work
disincentive is not a significant concern, but it remains a political issue.
Advocates therefore need to be able to frame arguments that counter these fears.
Should we be paying people to do nothing?

* A
Deeper Look at GLI: But will they work?
By Chandra Pasma
October 27, 2008
- includes links to the roundtable on guaranteed annual income hosted by the
Senate Sub-Committee on Cities, and the Basic Income International Congress
in Ireland.

* Part
II  A Deeper Look at GLI: Can We Pay People to Do Nothing?
By Chandra Pasma
January 5, 2009
- is it okay to let people live in poverty if they dont work? Or, as the
question is more commonly framed, is it right to pay people to do nothing?(...)
Does everybody have a right to food, to shelter, to a basic minimum of security,
and to clothing? International human rights commitments say yes.

* Part
III  A Deeper Look at GLI: Jobs for Everyone?
By Chandra Pasma
February 24, 2009
It is simply not reasonable to assume that every Canadian who wants a job could
have a job, let alone a good job that meets their needs and matches their skills
and interests. We should therefore be wary of any attempts to allow access to
income security be solely determined by participation in the paid labour force.
GLI would be one way of ensuring that every Canadian has income security, even
when there is no job available to them.

CPJ Blog
- this link takes you to the latest blog entry, where you'll also find links
to earlier entries at the bottom of the page.
NOTE : I highly recommend this blog --- the extensive collection of entries
is timely, and each entry contains at least a few links to related resources.
In this blog, links to resources are bolded (as opposed to underlined
and blue, as they are in more traditional websites, like the one you're on right
now).

Source:Citizens for Public JusticeWe are a faithful response to Gods call for love, justice and stewardship.
We envision a world in which individuals, communities, societal institutions
and governments all contribute to and benefit from the common good. Our mission
is to promote public justice in Canada by shaping key public policy debates
through research and analysis, publishing and public dialogue.

Related links:

Dublin
2008 BIEN Congress papers and presentations
Theme: Inequality and Development in a Globalised Economy - The Basic Income
Option
- links to over 60 Powerpoint presentations and papers presented at the
Dublin BIEN Congress in late June 2008
- sample presentation titles and plenary themes:
[ NOTE: only the first few titles below are hyperlinked - click the link
above to access links to all papers. ]

Transcript
of the Senate Roundtable on Guaranteed Income (51 printed pages)
June 13, 2008Highly recommended reading!On 13 June 2008, the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities held a Roundtable on
the topic of "Guaranteed Annual Income: Has Its Time Come?"
--- valuable insights on guaranteed income from recognized experts in the field
of guaranteed annual income, including Derek Hum (father of Mincome Manitoba),
Senator Hugh Segal, Sheila Regehr (Director, National Council of Welfare), Rob
Rainer (Executive Director, National Anti-Poverty Organization), professors
Lars Osberg and Jim Mulvale, Michael Mendelson of the Caledon Institute of Social
Policy, Marie White (Council of Canadians with Disabilities) and many others.

Party
battles 'tree-hugger' myth
September 13, 2008
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May isn't shy about touting her party's conservative
credentials. For some, the party's name conjures images of left-wing tree huggers.
But May emphasizes a picture of a socially progressive group with fiscally conservative
ideas. Even members of the Conservative party's natural constituency, she believes,
would feel at home with the Greens. (...)Election pledge re. eliminating poverty
* Remove income taxes on those living below the poverty line.
* Increase Guaranteed Income Supplements to seniors by 25 per cent.
* As a first step to a guaranteed annual income,
give an additional $5,000 a year to adults currently on welfare and strike deals
with provinces so it doesn't get clawed back.

September 8,.2008Green Party
will eliminate poverty and promote local foodOTTAWA  Green Party leader Elizabeth May today highlighted
both the need to eliminate poverty in Canada and promote local food on her first
election campaign stop in Ottawa. (...) To eliminate poverty and hunger, the
Green Party would look at introducing a Guaranteed Livable Income for Canadians.
As a regular annual payment, negotiation with the provinces could allow Guaranteed
Livable Income supplements to be set regionally. Setting the payment at a level
adequate for subsistence will still encourage additional income generation."

Senate Convenes Roundtable on Guaranteed IncomeOn 13 June 2008, the Senate Sub-Committee on Cities held a Roundtable on
the topic of "Guaranteed Annual Income: Has Its Time Come?"

Transcript
of the proceedings of the roundtable (51 printed pages)
June 13, 2008Highly recommended reading --- valuable insights on guaranteed income
from recognized experts in the field of guaranteed annual income, including
Derek Hum (father of Mincome Manitoba), Senator Hugh Segal, Sheila Regehr (Director,
National Council of Welfare), Rob Rainer (Executive Director, National Anti-Poverty
Organization), professors Lars Osberg and Jim Mulvale, Michael Mendelson of
the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, Marie White (Council of Canadians with
Disabilities) and many others.

A group of 18 people from Canada met at the Congress
of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) that was held in Dublin, Ireland
in late June 2008. (See the link to 60+ conference papers and presentations
below.) After some discussion, a motion was made and supported unanimously to
petition BIEN to recognize our group as their national affiliate for Canada.
This recognition was in fact granted the next day at the BIEN General Assembly.
(At this meeting, three other groups from Mexico, Italy, and Japan were also
recognized as new national affiliates of BIEN.)

Basic (or guaranteed) income is a model of economic
security that BIEN has discussed, researched, and promoted since its founding
in 1986. This model calls for the granting by the state of an assured and adequate
income for all, without any requirements for means testing or compulsory labour
market attachment.

With the establishment and recognition of BIEN
Canada, a Steering Group is now setting to work on such tasks as extending the
membership of the network, putting our group on a firm organizational footing,
and planning ongoing activities and future events.

Two well-known Canadian politicians concerned
about poverty reduction were part of the initiative to establish BIEN Canada
- Senator Hugh Segal and Member of Parliament Tony Martin. The National Anti-Poverty
Organization also took part in the founding of BIEN Canada, as well as numerous
researchers, social policy analysts, and advocates.

If you wish to be added to the BIEN Canada e-mail
list, please contact:jim.mulvale@uregina.ca (Jim Mulvale,
Dept. of Justice Studies, University of Regina)

Weighing
trade-offs on poverty
June 20, 2008
By Carol Goar
OTTAWAThe longing for a simple, affordable plan to reduce poverty runs
deep. It has propelled the idea of a guaranteed annual income onto the national
agenda no fewer than five times since the 1970s. But no proposal has ever had
enough momentum to overcome the political and practical barriers that stand
in the way of implementation.Senator Hugh Segal believes Canada is close to
the breakthrough point. "Our current programs haven't made a jot of progress
(in reducing poverty)," he says. "We've tried everything else. Why
don't we try a basic income floor?" Segal, a Conservative, was addressing
the Senate committee on cities chaired by Art Eggleton, a Liberal. Despite Ottawa's
fiercely partisan climate, the Senate remains an oasis of civil and informed
debate.
[ more columns by
Carol Goar ]
SourceThe Toronto Star

An
income for all Canadians
A guaranteed income program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of povertyFebruary 17, 2008
Comment by Reginald Stackhouse
Some ideas are rejected in the public forum not because they have been tried
and found wanting but because they have been found challenging and not tried.
One of them is a proposal that can really make poverty history in this country
 no, not by increasing any or all of our existing social programs. Just
the opposite.They will be replaced by a basic income policy, a.k.a. guaranteed
annual income or negative income tax. It will provide all Canadians with an
annual income, regardless of what other income they enjoy, earned or unearned.
Source:The Toronto Star

A
Tory joins poverty debate
February 14, 2008
For decades, the notion of a guaranteed annual income has been raised in Canadian
social policy debates. A basic floor income for all Canadian adults was first
advanced in Canada 35 years ago by Senator David Croll, a progressive Liberal.
It was touted again in the 1985 report of a royal commission headed by Donald
Macdonald, another Liberal. More recently, the Green party has embraced the
concept. It is refreshing, then, to see a Conservative, Senator Hugh Segal,
urging the study of a guaranteed income as a replacement for the myriad social
and anti-poverty programs in Canada.
Source:The Toronto Star

Guaranteed
income, guaranteed dignity - March 5, 2007
Myriam Canas-Mendes loves her job as an outreach worker at the Stop Community
Food Centre where she organizes public forums, connects recent immigrants to
government services and helps out in the centre's breakfast and lunch programs.
The pay is between $10 and $12 an hour depending on the task. That's considered
fair by advocates who are pushing Queen's Park to raise the provincial minimum
wage to $10 from $8.The problem is the single mom of two doesn't get enough
hours to make ends meet. And so the 34-year-old Canas-Mendes has to rely on
welfare to supplement her income. Except that doesn't provide enough money to
live on either.
Source:War on Poverty - from The
Toronto Star
- ongoing series of articles and editorials about the plight of Canada's needy
and possible reforms to the social programs that assist them.

Pondering
a Guaranteed Annual Income
September 7, 2006
Posted by Marc Lee
Senator Hugh Segal reviews the history and the need for a Guaranteed Annual
Income.
Canadas on-again, off-again relationship with a guaranteed annual income
(GAI) has made the rounds for many years. The most renowned recommendation for
the GAI came out of the 1985 report of the Royal Commission on the Economic
Union and Development Prospects for Canada, chaired by Donald Macdonald, known
as the Macdonald Commission. The report stated unequivocally that a universal
income security program is the essential building block for social
security programs in the 21st century.

Income
Insecurity:The Basic Income Alternativeby John Tomlinson
School of Humanities & Human Services
Queensland University of Technology
Australia
2001
"If freedom, security and productivity are the desired out comes of a modern
welfare state then this book argues that a Basic Income is the most efficient
way to achieve it."

Yes, Virginia, There is a Guaranteed Annual Income
December 2000
Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman
Caledon InstituteAbstractCommentary(PDF
file, 2 pages)

International Basic Income Links
(Guaranteed Annual income = Universal Income = Support Income = Citizens'
Income )
(the links below are organized in reverse chronological order)

The Anti-Poverty Experiment That Could Fix
Americas Broken Welfare Systemhttp://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/04/first-universal-basic-income-experiment.html
By Annie Lowrey
May 1, 2016
(...)
In the United States, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars to prevent poverty,
and yet one in seven of us still lives in poverty, including one in five children.
Despite being the richest country in the history of the world, roughly 1.5 million
households are living on less than $2 a day per person.

Basic Income: Let's Not do a Pilot Projecthttp://politudes.com/2016/03/12/basic-income-lets-not-do-a-pilot-project/
March 12, 2016
Politudes Commentary by Terrance Hunsley
Since the election of the Trudeau government, there has been increased interest
in the concept of basic income (also known as guaranteed income, and negative
income tax). The confluence of liberal governments in Ottawa and seven provinces,
as well as two NDP governments, suggests that a political consensus may be possible
to take a historic step forward.

Source:
Politudes.com http://politudes.com/
Politudes provides information capsules, summaries and commentary on national
and international developments in social policy, research on social well-being,
and the effectiveness of social programs and systems.

--- QUÉBEC: Minister of Employment appointed to work
on basic income
--- INTERNATIONAL: Christopher Pissarides, a Nobel Laureate, argues for UBI
at the World Economic Forum at Davos
--- GERMANY: Basic Income initiatives in Europe in the leading magazine Der
Spiegel
--- CANADA: Federal Minister Interested in Basic Income
[ http://www.basicincome.org/news/2016/02/canada-federal-minister-interested-in-basic-income
]
--- CANADA: Manitoba Liberals Vow to Try Basic Income if Elected
--- NAMIBIA: Basic Income Grant request newest step toward poverty eradication
--- United Kingdom: Labour Party considers universal basic income
--- PORTUGAL: Basic income conference in Portugal paves the way for a wide public
discussion
--- FRANCE: Paris top of the crop discuss basic income
--- GERMANY: Two top managers speak favourably about Basic Income
--- UNITED STATES: Vermont General Assembly Considers Basic Income Commission
--- FINLAND: University of Tampere Offers Course on Basic Income
--- CANADA: Ontario Commits to Basic Income Pilot in New Budget
--- LONDON: Is It Time For London To Try Basic Income?
--- more...

The BIG Push Campaignhttp://www.thebigpush.net/
The BIG Push is a historic national campaign for basic income in Canada. Please
explore our site to learn more about basic income, our campaign goals, current
work and executive team, and much more.
- incl. Home - Overview - Current Work - Learn More - Events - Get Involved
- Endorsements - Donate - Contact

---

Mincome Manitobahttp://canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm#mincome_manitoba
The Mincome Project, also called the Manitoba Basic Guaranteed Annual Income
Experiment, was the first large scale social experiment in Canada and
was designed to evaluate the economic and social consequences of an alternative
social welfare system based on the concept of negative income tax (NIT).
The experiment took place between 1975 and 1979 in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba.

NewsFlash Volume 88, October 2015http://goo.gl/JF6gA0This is the newsletter of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), which was
founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network and expanded to become
an Earthwide Network in 2004. It serves as a link between individuals and groups
committed to or interested in basic income. It fosters informed discussion on
this topic throughout the world.

NOTE : This is a long newsletter containing 34
articles, with plenty of food for thought. To avoid duplicating the newsletter
content, I've decided to include the hyperlinks only a selection of the articles
and invite any interested parties to click the link above (right under "NewsFlash"
above) to access any title that you'll see below.

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)http://biencanada.ca/
BICN promotes the idea, and educates the public and policymakers about ways
to support a basic income. Bien Canada is the Canadian affiliate of Basic Income
Earth Network.

NEW from the
Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN):

March 2015
(via email)

NewsFlash Volume 28, no. 82, March 2015 This is the occasional newsletter of the Basic Income Earth Network
(BIEN), which was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network and expanded
to become an Earth-wide Network in 2004. It serves as a link between individuals
and groups committed to or interested in basic income. It fosters informed discussion
on this topic throughout the world.
--- NOTE : The BIEN website NewsFlash page was
last updated in December 2014.
If you wish to receive the BIEN NewsFlash by email every two months and not
have to worry about when the newsletter is eventually uploaded to the BIEN website,
go to "Subscribe to NewsFlash" : http://www.basicincome.org/newsflash/

Excerpts from the
Table of contents for the
March 2015 edition of NewsFlash:
NOTE : As a subscriber to the BIEN NewsFlash, I receive the latest news every
two months, which is why I can inform you about the content of this issue of
NewsFlash. Subscribe to NewsFlash: http://www.basicincome.org/newsflash/
[In your request for a subscription, ask for a PDF copy the March 2015 issue,
where you'll find the links for all of the content below.]

1. News
--- INTERNATIONAL: 2014 BIS Essay Prize
--- FINLAND: 65% of Parliamentary Candidates Favor Basic Income
--- FRANCE: Renowed author and basic income supporter Bernard Maris among Charlie
Hebdo victims
--- HUNGARY: Green-Left Party declares its support for basic income
--- JAPAN: Party that endorses BIG has a new political platform
--- PORTUGAL: Basic Income public discussions on the rise in Portugal
--- SPAIN: "Hot" discussions around Basic Income at the moment in
Spain
---SPAIN: How is the situation evolving in the Basque Country, Spain, concerning
Basic Income?
--- PORTUGAL: Portuguese citizen movements and political party join together
to contest the upcoming elections and insert basic income in their draft political
program
--- UNITED KINGDOM: Green Party England and Wales launches election campaign,
manifesto to include Basic Income
--- NEW YORK, NY: The Fourteenth Annual North America Basic Income Guarantee
Congress

3. BI Literature
Links to 20 related articles about BIG, including:
--- Guy Standing, "Basic income pilots: a better option than Quantitative
Easing"
--- John Sutter, The argument for a basic income
--- Pete Higgins, Why Universal Basic Income is a Better Alternative to
the Welfare State.
--- Scott Santens, "Universal basic income as the social vaccine of the
21st century"
--- Scott Santens, "Guess what happened when Liberia tested a pilot program
of cash transfers to the extreme poor in Bomi"
--- Toru Yamamori, Why Basic Income Now? Limitations of the Japanese Welfare
State
--- Yves Smith, "The failure of past Basic Income Guarantee, the Speenhamland
System"

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)http://biencanada.ca/
BICN promotes the idea, and educates the public and policymakers about ways
to support a basic income.

The BIG Push Campaignhttp://www.thebigpush.net/
The BIG Push is a historic national campaign for basic income in Canada. Please
explore our site to learn more about basic income, our campaign goals, current
work and executive team, and much more.
- incl. Home - Overview - Current Work - Learn More - Events - Get Involved
- Endorsements - Donate - Contact

What is Basic Income?http://www.reddit.com/r/basicincome/wiki/index
Simply put:
"A Basic Income is an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual
basis, without means test or work requirement. BI is alternately referred to
as a guaranteed annual income, citizen's income, citizen's dividend, social
dividend, negative income tax, and others."

Source:Reddithttp://www.reddit.com/
Reddit is an entertainment, social networking service and news website where
registered community members can submit content, such as text posts or direct
links. Registered users can then vote submissions "up" or "down"
to organize the posts and determine their position on the site's pages. Content
entries are organized by areas of interest called "subreddits".

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)http://biencanada.ca/
BICN promotes the idea, and educates the public and policymakers about ways
to support a basic income.

The BIG Push Campaignhttp://www.thebigpush.net/
The BIG Push is a historic national campaign for basic income in Canada. Please
explore our site to learn more about basic income, our campaign goals, current
work and executive team, and much more.
- incl. Home - Overview - Current Work - Learn More - Events - Get Involved
- Endorsements - Donate - Contact

The argument for a basic incomehttp://www.cnn.com/2015/03/01/opinion/sutter-basic-income/index.html
By John D. Sutter
March 1, 2015
... Census data show one in five American kids is poor. The United States, according
to UNICEF, actually has the second-highest rate of child poverty in the developed
world. Only Romania fares worse on that measure.
(...)
The basic income continues to have a diverse set of supporters -- left, right
and libertarian. They like the concept for different reasons, said Matt Bruenig,
a writer and policy analyst for Demos. Those on the left tend to like it because
it's egalitarian. It helps give everyone an equal (or more equal) shot at success
in our capitalist society. Some libertarians and right-wingers support the concept,
meanwhile, because they see it as a way to whittle away at government bureaucracy.
Some would have the basic income replace many existing social safety net programs.
There's also a conservative philosophy underlying all of this: Give people money
and they, not the government, know best how to spend it. They know what they
need. The feds do not.

[ NOTE by Rob Rainer* : The article focuses on Cherokee, North
Carolina, where the 15,000 people there each receive in the order of US$10,000
per year as a result of a decision in the 1990s to split the profits of a casino.
A number of positive outcomes concerning children are identified. A January
2014 New York Times article [ http://goo.gl/UdsXBM
] also profiled how Cherokee's basic income has positively influenced child
health and development.]
------------------* Rob Rainer is with the BIG Push Campaign and the Basic Income Canada Network.
------------------

Basic Income Canada Network (BICN)http://biencanada.ca/
BICN promotes the idea, and educates the public and policymakers about ways
to support a basic income.NOTE : See In the News [http://biencanada.ca/news/
] for the latest in news about basic income - another name for guaranteed income...

The BIG Push Campaignhttp://www.thebigpush.net/
The BIG Push is a historic national campaign for basic income in Canada. Please
explore our site to learn more about basic income, our campaign goals, current
work and executive team, and much more.
- incl. Home - Overview - Current Work - Learn More - Events - Get Involved
- Endorsements - Donate - Contact

The Fourteenth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee
Congresshttp://www.usbig.net/
Thursday, February 26  Sunday March 1, 2015
New York, NY
The Fourteenth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee Congress (a joint
even of U.S. and Canadian Basic Income networks) will take place in New York
City.
Click the link above for more info.

NewsFlash Volume 287, no. 80, January 2015 This is the occasional newsletter of the Basic Income Earth Network
(BIEN), which was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network and expanded
to become an Earth-wide Network in 2004. It serves as a link between individuals
and groups committed to or interested in basic income. It fosters informed discussion
on this topic throughout the world.
--- NOTE : When I checked the BIEN website on
January 18, 2015, neither the HTML version nor the PDF version had been posted
yet on the BIEN website. When the website is updated, you'll find links to both
complete versions of the newsletter on this page:
http://www.basicincome.org/bien/news.html
If you wish to receive the BIEN NewsFlash by email and not have to worry about
when the newsletter is eventually posted to the BIEN website, scroll down the
page you're now reading and click "Subscribe to NewsFlash."

Excerpts from the
Table of contents for the
January 2015 edition of NewsFlash:

2. News
--- [U.S. & U.K.) Efforts to get Basic Income in front of lawmakers
--- UNITED KINGDOM: Basic Income group forms within Liberal Democrats party
--- UNITED STATES: Democratic Proposal Small Step in the Direction of BIG
--- FRANCE, BELGIUM, SWITZERLAND: Launch of French-language Basic Income newspaper
'L'inconditionnel'
--- JAPAN: Party that endorses BIG has a new political platform
--- UNITED STATES: Voxs Dylan Matthews Extensively Writes on the Basic
Income
--- UNITED STATES: Fundraiser Started for Film on the Basic Income

3. Events
--- BROOKLYN, NY & ONLINE: Meeting to Discuss a Political Movement for Basic
Income, March 1, 2015
--- New York, NY, United States: Registration open for North American Basic
Income Guarantee (NABIG) Congress, Feb. 26-Mar. 1, 2015
--- Florence, Italy: Conference: The Future of Basic Income Research, Call for
Abstracts

4. Basic Income (BI) Literature
Links to three dozen reports and articles about BI.

Source:
Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)[ http://www.basicincome.org/bien/
Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims to serve as a
link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income,
i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without
means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion on this topic
throughout Europe

Related links:

Basic Income Canada Network http://www.biencanada.ca
Basic Income Canada Network (BICN) is a non-government organization, federally
incorporated in 2012 and without charitable status. Basic Income Canada Network
is governed by a Board of Directors that includes some of Canada's foremost
experts on poverty, welfare, homelessness and basic income.

The BIG Push Campaign http://www.thebigpush.net
Founded in April 2013 and hosted by Basic Income Canada Network, The BIG Push
seeks to build on existing and variable forms of basic income in Canada so that,
as a final end goal an expanded system of basic income will be in place.

Source:
Basic Income Earth Network http://www.basicincome.org/bien/
Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims to serve as a
link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income,
i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without
means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion on this topic
throughout Europe.

Related link:

Basic Income Canada Networkhttp://biencanada.ca/
Basic Income Canada Network / Réseau canadien pour le revenu garanti
provides information on basic income, promotes the idea and educates the public
and policy makers about ways to support a basic income.

BASIC INCOME EARTH NETWORK (BIEN)http://www.basicincome.org
NewsFlash Volume 27, no. 77, October 2014
This is the newsletter of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), which was founded
in 1986 as the Basic Income European Network and expanded to become an Earth-wide
Network in 2004. It serves as a link between individuals and groups committed
to or interested in basic income. It fosters informed discussion on this topic
throughout the world.

NewsFlash Home Pagehttp://www.basicincome.org/bien/news.html
NOTE : Select the NewsFlash issue you wish to access (Volume 27, no. 77 - October
2014) and then choose which version (PDF or HTML) you wish to read; also includes
links to earlier issues of NewsFlash back to the early 1980s.

Table of Contents for
NewsFlash Volume 27, no. 77, October 2014:

1. Editorial
2. Events* New York, NY: Call for Proposals released for The 14th Annual NABIG Congress,
Feb. 26 Mar. 1, 2015: Deadline for submission: November 10, 2014
* INTERNATIONAL: Basic Income Week Observed in Several Countries
* CYBERSPACE: BIEN organizes Basic Income AMA Series: The 7th Annual International
Basic Income Week, September 15-21, 2014
* LONDON, UK: Citizens Income: A solid foundation for tomorrows
society, 6th June 20143. News
* BRAZIL: Eduardo Suplicy, long-term advocate of
Unconditional Basic Income, defeated in his bid for reelection to the Brazilian
Senate
* CANADA: A Guaranteed Income is the Way of the Future, Says Minister Blais
* EUROPEAN UNION: Basic Income Supporter Elected President of European Commission4. BI Literature
5. Audio-video
6. About the Basic Income Earth Network and its NewsFlash

Universal
Income Trust (New Zealand) - ADDED SEPTEMBER
19, 2014
We are a nonprofit certified charitable educational Trust, dedicated to the
promotion of economic rights, and formally established in February of 1998.
We evolved from the works of people from the grass roots movement now called
"UUI (Unconditional Universal Income) Action".
- includes links to the following sections of the website:
* Environment * Human Rights * Poverty * Networks * Violence * Links * Economics
* Resources * UI Systems

1. Editorials:
- Report from the 15th Congress of the Basic Income Earth Network
- Open Letter To All Candidates For The European Parliament
2. News about Basic Income from around the world
3. Events
4. BI Literature
5. Audio-video
6. New links
7. About the Basic Income Earth Network and its NewsFlash

Source:
BIEN NewsFlashhttp://www.basicincome.org/bien/news.htmlBIEN NewsFlash is the newsletter of the Basic Income
Earth Network (BIEN)
This NewsFlash goes out to more than 2,000 subscribers four times a year.
- incl. earlier issues of the newsletter back to January 2000

Contact:bien@widerquist.com
Karl Widerquist (co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network)

Source:
Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)http://www.basicincome.org/bien/
The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income
European Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004.
It is an international network that serves as a link between individuals and
groups committed to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion
of the topic throughout the world. To that end it organizes Congresses every
two years, and publishes a free email NewsFlash [see below] every two months
and it helps support the journal Basic Income Studies.
- includes links to : * About BIEN * About Basic Income * NewsFlash * Congresses
* Papers and Resources * Membership * Links * Contact

Guaranteeing a Minimum Income Has Been a
Utopian Dream for Centurieshttp://motherboard.vice.com/blog/guaranteeing-a-minimum-income-has-been-a-utopian-dream-for-centuries
By Brian Merchant
November 14, 2013
Switzerland made headlines with its proposal to dole out $2,800 per month to
every citizen in the nation, thus creating a basic minimum incomeand ensuring
that no Swiss ever had to live below the poverty line again. It's a seemingly
radical effort to redistribute income, and to sew together one of the most generous
safety nets possiblebut it's hardly a new idea. The utopian notion that
a society should pool and distribute its resources to gaurantee the wellbeing
of its most vulnerable citizens dates back over a millenium: Islamic Caliphates,
American revolutionaries, sci-fi writers, and Martin Luther King, Jr. have all
pushed for a basic minimum income. One of the earliest incarnations first surfaced
in Arabia in the early 600s, and sprung from Islamic religious tradition...
(includes a Canadian section)

Source:
Motherboardhttp://motherboard.vice.com/
Motherboard is traveling the world to uncover the stories that will define what's
coming next. New technologies, cultures, and discoveries are constantly reshaping
this old planet of ours. And it's happening faster than ever before. With in-depth
blogging, longform reporting, and video journalism, Motherboard investigates
the news and events that are already affecting the years to come.

Switzerlands Proposal to Pay People
for Being Alivehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/magazine/switzerlands-proposal-to-pay-people-for-being-alive.html
By Annie Lowrey
November 12, 2013
This fall, a truck dumped eight million coins outside the Parliament building
in Bern, one for every Swiss citizen. It was a publicity stunt for advocates
of an audacious social policy that just might become reality in the tiny, rich
country. Along with the coins, activists delivered 125,000 signatures 
enough to trigger a Swiss public referendum, this time on providing a monthly
income to every citizen, no strings attached. Every month, every Swiss person
would receive a check from the government, no matter how rich or poor, how hardworking
or lazy, how old or young. Poverty would disappear. Economists, needless to
say, are sharply divided on what would reappear in its place  and whether
such a basic-income scheme might have some appeal for other, less socialist
countries too.

What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/what-happens-when-the-poor-receive-a-stipend/
January 18, 2014
Read about this very interesting cash grant / guaranteed income experiment starting
in the late 1990s involving the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina.
When the tribe opened a casino in 1996, they elected to distribute a proportion
of casino profits equally amopng its 8,000 members. Jane Costello of Duke University
studied the effects of the guaranteed income over time, and found beneficial
outcomes in many areas - health, justice, education, self-esteem, etc.

NOTE : A Canadian guaranteed annual income
experiment took place in the late 1970s, called Mincome Manitoba.
Researchers found positive outcomes similar to those in the above article about
the Cherokee Indians.
See: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm#mincome_manitoba
[This link takes you to the Canadian section of the page you're now reading.]

Source:
De Correspondent https://decorrespondent.nl/en
De Correspondent is a Dutch-language, online journalism platform that focuses
on background, analysis, investigative reporting, and the kinds of stories that
tend to escape the radar of mainstream media because they do not conform to
what is normally understood to be 'news.'

A Radical Fix for the Social Safety Net:
Replace It All With One BIG (Basic Income Guarantee) Ideahttp://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/10/03/radical-social-safety-net-fix-basic-income-guarantee/
(Scroll about one-third of the way down the page to read this article.)
October 3, 2013
By Rich Smith
"Social engineers, on both the right and the left, have made [Social Security]
complex in order to achieve their ends without anyone being able to see what
they were doing. Whatever really underlies the 2,728 rules in Social Security's
handbook and the tens of thousands of rules ... that 'clarify' the 2,728 rules,
our Social Security system as currently designed is a travesty that leaves most
of us largely in the dark about our retirement incomes." -- Boston University
Economics Professor Larry Kotlikoff.
---
Precisely. And it's not just Social Security. The whole social "safety
net" system in America is pretty messed up. With names like Medicare and
Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, SSI, WIC, and Section 8, this hodgepodge of dozens of
federal and state programs costs tens of billions of dollars a year just to
administer.
(...)
It's enough to make you want to just chuck the whole system and start over.
And in fact, that's precisely what Allan Sheahen proposes in his July 2012 book
-- recently issued in paperback -- on the "Basic Income Guarantee,"
or "BIG." [ Amazon : http://goo.gl/u2Uyjt
]

-----------------------------

COMMENT by Gilles:

The notion of Basic Income Guarantee (a.k.a. BIG,
a.k.a. guaranteed annual income) goes back several hundred years (Google "Speenhamland")
in Western societies and even further, right back to Ancient Rome and Greece.
Today, BIG proposals pop up from time to time in the context of reforms addressing
wealth and income inequality.

There is a surprisingly high degree of support
for the BIG concept from the Far Right to the Far Left (or social conservatives
to socialists , if you prefer). That's because, like all "Big Bang"
scenarios, the devil's in the details. The fiscal and social conservative think
tank Fraser Institute and those of their ilk salivate at the thought of combining
all of Canada's major social programs (Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan,
provincial/territorial social assistance, housing assistance, etc.) into one
basic benefit, and saving scads of money for government coffers through improved
administrative and program efficiencies (e.g., cutting staff, tightening eligibility).
On the other hand, many social advocacy groups like Canada Without Poverty (CWP),
are strongly supportive of any government initiative that would improve the
financial well-being of disadvantaged individuals and families. The difference
between the Fraser and CWP versions of BIG is, of course, in the amounts that
would be payable to Canadian individuals and families.

Call for Papers and Presentations:
Basic Income and Economic Citizenship
Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Guarantee CongressMay 9-11, 2013, New York Cityhttp://www.usbig.net/index.php
[The basic income guarantee (BIG) is a government insured guarantee that no
citizen's income will fall below some minimal level for any reason.]
---
The Twelfth Annual North American Basic Income Congress, Basic Income and Economic
Citizenship, will take place in New York City on Thursday, May 9th through Saturday,
May 11th, 2013. The congress is organized by the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee
Network (USBIG) in cooperation with the Basic Income Canada Network
(BICN).

The deadline for proposals is November 30,
2012.

Click either of the two source links below for
more information about the event and the call for papers and presentations.

NEW! Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN)
and affiliates launch Basic Income News[A Basic Income is an income unconditionally
granted to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement.
So Basic Income = Guaranteed Annual Income.]
May 25, 2011

Basic Income News
is the online incarnation of the BIEN
NewsFlash (see the link below) and affiliated publications, such as
the USBIG Newsletter.
The BIEN NewsFlash and its predecessor, the BIEN Newsletter, have been in publication
since 1986. The USBIG Newsletter has been going since the year 2000. It is the
creation of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (the USBIG Network), BIENs
affiliate in the United States.

Basic Income News will have frequently updated
news stories about Basic Income around the world, provided initially by BIEN
and USBIG. We hope soon that many more of BIENs affiliates will contribute
as well. If you have news about Basic Income that you think should be published
in Basic Income News, please contact the editors at <desk@binews.org>.

Related links:

BIEN
NEWSFLASH 64, May 2011 (PDF - 147K, 17 pages)
Table of contents:
1. NEW! BIEN and affiliates launch Basic Income News: http://binews.org/
2. BIEN Congress 2012 will be held in Munich, Germany
3. New Issue of Basic Income Studies
4. Basic income book series: call for proposals
5. Events
Seoul, Delhi, Namur, Berlin, Lincoln
6. Glimpses of national debates
- EUROPEAN UNION: EU-Parliament in favour of adequate minimum income
- FRANCE: Former Prime Minister launches basic income campaign
- GREECE: Basic Pension Introduced
- IRAQ: Muqtada al-Sadr Endorses Alaskan Policy
- ITALY: Activist Movement for basic income
- KUWAIT: A Temporary, Partial basic income for Citizens Only
- LATIN AMERICA: Head of UN Commission Says Several Latin America Countries
Could Implement basic income
- UNITED STATES: American Political Science Association Task Force Will Discuss
BIG
- SWITZERLAND: A referendum on basic income?
7. Publications
8. New Links
9. About the Basic Income Earth Network
---
BIEN's NewsFlash is mailed electronically every two months to over 1,500 subscribers
throughout the world.
Requests for free subscription should be sent to bien@basicincome.org

New blogs at USBIG
May 19, 2011
The USBIG Network has added the following two blogs to its website. Both have
news and opinion on those topics going back to 2000, and both will continue
to be updated periodically. Both allow for reader comments and feedback.

* The
Alaska Dividend Blog
The Alaska Dividend, properly called the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), is the
closest thing to a basic income guarantee that exists in the world today. It
is a small, yearly dividend, financed indirectly from oil revenues, paid by
the state government to every citizen who lives in Alaska-including all men,
women, and children. This blog has news and commentary about the Alaska Dividend
as a small basic income that can provide a model to be copied elsewhere.

To
Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor
January 3, 2011
By Tina Rosenberg
(...) A single social program is transforming how countries all over the world
help their poor. The program, called Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) in
Brazil, goes by different names in different places. In Mexico, where it first
began on a national scale and has been equally successful at reducing poverty,
it is Oportunidades. The generic term for the program is conditional
cash transfers. The idea is to give regular payments to poor families, in the
form of cash or electronic transfers into their bank accounts, if they meet
certain requirements. The requirements vary, but many countries employ those
used by Mexico: families must keep their children in school and go for regular
medical checkups, and mom must attend workshops on subjects like nutrition or
disease prevention. The payments almost always go to women, as they are the
most likely to spend the money on their families. The elegant idea behind conditional
cash transfers is to combat poverty today while breaking the cycle of poverty
for tomorrow. (...) Outside of Brazil and Mexico, conditional cash transfer
programs are newer and smaller. Nevertheless, there is ample research showing
that they, too, increase consumption, lower poverty, and increase school enrollment
and use of health services.
Source:New York Times Opinion pages

Minimum
Income Standard (Britain)
- incl. links to:
* Detailed results 2008 * 2009 update * Work in progress * The team * Publications
* Links * Join our mailing list * Contact us
A Minimum Income Standard for Britain is an ongoing programme of research to
define what level of income is needed to allow a minimum acceptable standard
of living in Britain today. Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, it is
a collaboration between the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough
University and the Family Budget Unit at York University. It brings together
two approaches to setting budget standards: the "consensual" negotiation
of budgets by panels of ordinary people, and budgets based on research evidence
and expert judgements. In MIS, members of the public negotiate budgets and experts
check these decisions and advise where they think there is a case for amending
them. The first results of MIS were posted in July 2008, and the results were
updated in July 2009; links to both reports appear below.

---

A
minimum income standard for Britain:
What people think (PDF - 236K, 64 pages)
July 2008
By Jonathan Bradshaw et al.
"(...) Poverty is currently being measured in three main ways, but none
of these is producing a socially agreed minimum standard.
1. Relative income measures...
2. Measures of deprivation...
3. Budget standards..."

---

A
minimum income standard
for Britain in 2009 (PDF - 427K, 24 pages)
July 2009
By Donald Hirsch, Abigail Davis and Noel Smith
Published on 1 July 2009, this report is the first annual update of the Minimum
Income Standard for Britain (MIS), originally published in 2008. The standard
is based on research into what members of the public, informed where relevant
by expert knowledge, think should go into a budget in order to achieve a minimum
socially acceptable standard of living. The report considers two aspects of
uprating the standard for 2009: changes in prices that influence the cost of
a minimum basket of goods and services, and changes in living standards
that may influence what items should be included in that basket.

Related links:

Joseph Rowntree Foundation
"We seek to understand the root causes of social problems,
to identify ways of overcoming them, and to show how social needs can be met
in practice."

Basic Income
Earth Network
Founded in 1986, the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) aims to serve as a
link between individuals and groups committed to, or interested in, basic income,
i.e. an income unconditionally granted to all on an individual basis, without
means test or work requirement, and to foster informed discussion on this topic
throughout Europe.

US Basic Income Guarantee
(BIG) Network
"... promotes the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the
United States.
BIG is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least a subsistence-level
income for everyone."

US
BIG Links to BIG Websites (145+ links)
This page contains links to websites with information about BIG. The pages differ
considerably in their point of view. Some promote a BIG, some promote it as
part of a larger strategy; some promote variations on the idea; some oppose
it altogether. The fact that these websites are listed here is not considered
a recommendation of their program, simply a location to find information.

USBIG
NEWSLETTER VOL. 10, NO. 51 Winter 2009This is the Newsletter of the USBIG Network (www.usbig.net), which promotes
the discussion of the basic income guarantee (BIG) in the United States. BIG
is a policy that would unconditionally guarantee at least a subsistence-level
income for everyone.
Selected Content:
* The Eighth Congress of the USBIG Network: New York February 27-March 1
* The Effects of Alaskas BIG on Growth and Equality in Alaska
* Alaskas BIG Suffers from the Global Financial Crisis
*. The Income Security Institute
* New Issues of Basic Income Studies (journal)
* BIG News From Around the World (including CANADA)
* Recent and Upcoming Events
* Upcoming Events
* Recent Publications
* New Members / New Links
[ earlier issues of the newsletter
- back to 2000 ]To subscribe to the email version of this newsletter,
please email Karl@Widerquist.com

IncomeSecurityForAll.org
- a portal of information about BIG and the host site for the Income Security
Institute; the Institute is a new nonprofit organization dedicated to education
and research into income security through a Basic Income Guarantee.
- incl. links to:
* Home * Blog * Campaign * Institute (About) * Resources (history, articles,
books, annual BIG Congress) * Events * Links * Contact us * Donate

Basic
Income Earth Network (BIEN)
The Basic Income Earth Network was founded in 1986 as the Basic Income European
Network. It expanded its scope from European to the Earth in 2004. It is an
international network that serves as a link between individuals and groups committed
to or interested in basic income, and fosters informed discussion of the topic
throughout the world.
- incl. links to: * About BIEN * About Basic Income * NewsFlash * Congresses
* Papers and Resources * Membership * Links * Contact

On
Welfare and the Alternatives (U.S.)
Welfare reform was a good idea in theory but hasn't quite worked out the way
NEWT (Gingrich) and Bill Clinton thought it would.
March 1, 2007
"(...)if you want to decrease the size of government while making people
self-sufficient and in doing so leaving the family unit intact, there is a rather
simple solution that has been batted around since the Nixon administration.
The Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) is a government ensured guarantee that
no one's income will fall below the level necessary to meet their most basic
needs for any reason. As Bertrand Russell put it in 1918, "A certain small
income, sufficient for necessities, should be secured for all, whether they
work or not, and that a larger income should be given to those who are willing
to engage in some work which the community recognizes as useful. On this basis
we may build further." Thus, with BIG no one is destitute but everyone
has the positive incentive to work. BIG is an efficient, effective, and equitable
solution to poverty that promotes individual freedom and leaves the beneficial
aspects of a market economy in place. (...) I believe in dismantling the entire
welfare system, Medicaid/care included and replacing it with the above BIG.
This is the conservative solution without making judgments or convoluting it
with man-managed bureaucracies as this would be the domain of the US Treasury
department.
Source:411mania.com ("pop-culture since
'96")

What is
the Basic Income Guarantee?[For a discussion of BIG as a solution to poverty see "An Efficiency
Argument for the Basic Income Guarantee"]
[For cost estimates of BIG See Garfinkel, Huang, and Naidich (2002) or Clark
(2002)]
[For a History of USBIG 1999 to 2004, see The first five years of the U.S. Basic
Income Guarantee Network]
[For a discussion of the diversity of BIG proposals see, "The Many Faces
of Universal Basic Income." (Reprinted by permission from the Political
Quarterly 75 (3), 2004, pp. 266-274.0)]
Source:U.S. Basic Income Guarantee (USBIG) Network

Citizen's Income
(U.K.)
"Citizen's Income is an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable
to each individual as a right of citizenship. The Citizen's Income Trust plays
a vital role in building democracy, promoting pluralism, improving justice,
addressing poverty and correcting and complementing the roles of the state and
the economic market place."

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